PUTRAJAYA, Sept 8 — Malaysia’s police will follow standard operating procedures and investigate the latest allegation that a PKR lawmaker had offered to buy stolen data on 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) from a former executive of potential partner PetroSaudi International (PSI), Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said today.

However, Ahmad Zahid, who is both deputy prime minister and home minister, said he was uncertain if the police have opened a file on the case, after two local papers reported it today.

“The police will definitely get cooperation from Thailand to take further action, especially in opening investigation papers, before the investigation papers are handed over to the Attorney-General’s Chambers to make a prosecution.

“I was not informed by IGP but I’m confident that this is the normal SOP, to open IP at PDRM,” he said, referring to the Royal Malaysian Police Force by its Malay acronym PDRM.

Local papers New Straits Times (NST) and its Malay sister publication Berita Harian both reported today former PSI executive Xavier Andre Justo saying in a written confession that he had received an offer from PKR MP Nurul Izzah Anwar to buy confidential information on 1MDB for US$2 million, but had rejected it.

In a new report today, NST cited Justo as saying that Clare Rewcastle-Brown, editor of London-based whistleblower site Sarawak Report, had acted as the intermediary between him and Nurul Izzah.

In response, Nurul Izzah denied the allegations and said that she had initiated legal action against the two dailies which are published by The New Straits Times Press owned by the Umno-linked media group, Media Prima.

Justo pled guilty last month in Thailand to a charge of attempting to blackmail Saudi-based PSI over purportedly incriminating documents and was sentenced to three years’ jail.

US paper Wall Street Journal reported last July that almost US$700 million was funnelled into the personal bank accounts of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak through several companies linked to 1MDB,  two months before the tumultuous 13th general election in May 2013.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission has, however, said that the money did not come from 1MDB, but from Middle Eastern donors that it did not identify.