KUALA LUMPUR, May 16 — The police’s Special Branch does not engage in illegal espionage, Datuk Seri Mohamad Fuzi Harun said today after the department was accused of monitoring Johor royalty.

The head of the police’s intelligence unit insisted his department also observed the recommendations from the 2005 royal commission of inquiry on the police that suggested the SB be limited strictly to national security matters.

“Naysayers can say all they want, but my duty is to protect my country, according to the law...

“What we all care about is the security of our country and all my officers will perform whatever tasks given to us,” he told Malay Mail Online when contacted.

Fuzi was responding to DAP MP Liew Chin Tong who last week urged the Inspector-General of Police to state if the SB was surveilling members of Johor royalty as alleged by Tengku Mahkota of Johor Tunku Ismail Ibrahim.

Liew insisted police surveillance of the Johor royal house exceeded the SB’s duties as spelled out in the Police Act, which he said was to “collect security intelligence”.

He also cited the 2005 RCI Report, which proposed that the SB be confined to the protection of the federation and states from espionage, sabotage, politically or religiously motivated violence, communal violence, attacks on Malaysia’s defence system, and foreign interference.

Tunku Ismail alleged in an interview last week that his phone had been tapped, his movements were monitored by the SB, and suggested that Bukit Aman could be keeping files on both him and his father, the sultan.

The IGP had reportedly met with the crown prince last week, and stated that the matter of a “misunderstanding” was cleared.