Why no effort to get fugitive blogger back for questioning? Guan Eng asks after RPK’s claims against SRC judge

KUALA LUMPUR, April 24 — DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng today questioned the authorities over what he perceived as a lack of effort to bring fugitive Malaysian blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin back for investigation over his many questionable allegations published online.

Instead, the Bagan MP noted the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) swift investigation into the blogger’s recent allegation on the purportedly “unexplained wealth” of a judge who had tried and found former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak guilty of multiple counts of misusing RM42 million belonging to government-owned SRC International Sdn Bhd.

“Even though RPK is hiding in London, he should be asked to return to subject himself to be thoroughly investigated. 

“If RPK refuses to return and if there are sufficient grounds for criminal charges to be filed then RPK should be extradited,” Lim said in a statement, referring to the Malay Today blogger by his online handle.

Raja Petra has been on the run from Malaysian law since April 2009 when he failed to turn up in court for his sedition trial over an open letter on the then Perak constitutional crisis. He is widely believed to be living in the UK.

The Opposition lawmaker was referring to Raja Petra’s April 20 article against Court of Appeal Judge Datuk Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali. 

Nazlan was the judge who presided over Najib’s year-long SRC International trial at the High Court that began in April 2019 and delivered the guilty verdict in July 2020.

Nazlan was elevated to the Court of Appeal judge in February this year.

The judge has since filed a police report denying the claims and called the article titled “Judge Mohd Nazlan being investigated for unexplained RM1 million in his bank account” baseless and malicious.

MACC chief chief Tan Sri Azam Baki told The Star that investigations into the allegation started after the commission received a complaint and not because of the online allegations.

In his statement, Lim also questioned the MACC’s failure to act as speedily in looking into the proxy trading allegations against Azam in which his name was used by his brother Nasir Baki to purchase millions of shares in two public listed companies back in 2015.

Azam denied the allegations and the Securities Commission (SC) cleared the MACC chief of violating trading laws in January.

The SC said it did not conclusively find that Azam committed any breach under Section 25(4) Securities Central Depository Act 1991 (SICDA) that a trading account must be opened in the name of the beneficial owner or authorised nominee.