KUALA LUMPUR, June 21 — The police have partially completed its criminal defamation investigation on Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said today.
The Inspector General of Police added that the papers have been passed to the Attorney-General’s (AG) Chambers for the next course of action although there were still a few other outstanding cases involving the former prime minister.
“Some of the investigation we have completed and the papers have been passed to the AG,” he told reporters at the national police headquarters in Bukit Aman here.
“There are a few others that we have yet to decide on and my officers and I are deliberating on it but no decision has been made yet.”
The former prime minister of 22 years was investigated for criminal defamation over his recent suggestion that the Malay rulers may be under house arrest.
But according to his lawyer Ahmad Bazlan Che Kassim, Dr Mahathir, during police questioning earlier this month, was mostly asked about the Citizens’ Declaration, the petition calling for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s resignation that the leader had started.
If convicted under Section 500 of the Penal Code, Dr Mahathir faces a maximum two-year jail term or a fine, or both.
Last month, Dr Mahathir told a forum that he had not been able to secure an audience with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to deliver his Citizens’ Declaration memorandum bearing over a million signatures.
He claimed this was likely because the rulers had been confined to their palaces.
