By Zakiah Koya & Kamles Kumar
Malaysiakini
Feb 19, 2015

EXCLUSIVE A former top cop has accused Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi of breaking the Official Secrets Act (OSA) by writing the letter to the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to clear gambling kingpin Paul Phua Wei Seng.

This is because the information contained in the police investigation files is classified under the OSA, unless it has been declassified, former Kuala Lumpur CID chief Mat Zain Ibrahim said.

The Official Secrets Act 1972 (Act 88), or OSA, is a federal law in Malaysia that prohibits the dissemination of information classified as an “official secret”.

Mat Zain said Zahid disbursed ‘secret’ information to unauthorised parties, such as the FBI and to the lawyers for Phua, Shafee Abdullah in Malaysia and Messrs Chesnoff & Schonfeld in the US.

In an email to Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail on Jan 19, Mat Zain said Zahid had broken the law in writing the letter and stating that Phua is not a member of the 14K triad.

The email, as seen by Malaysiakini, is titled “Detailing the crime of Zahid and Shafee under the Penal Code and OSA”.

Mat Zain said this finding was based on a case in January 2000, in which Senator Mohd Ezam Mohd Nor was given two years of imprisonment under the OSA for revealing “secret” information on a then Anti-Corruption Agency investigation into former international trade minister Rafidah Aziz.

He said if the ACA files are considered to be under OSA, what more then the personal records of Phua and his involvement in 14K triad, which are in the keeping of the police.

‘Police reputation tarnished, internationally’

He said that by etching the letter to FBI, Zahid had also tarnished the reputation of the police, internationally.

“Zahid and Shafee, in questioning the validity of the Paul Phua record that the police furnished to the FBI in 2008, can cause the FBI and Interpol to doubt the legitimacy of other information that has and will be furnished to the international bodies,” Mat Zain wrote in his email.

Prior to this, police personnel had revealed that Phua did not assist them in any way, let alone on matters of national security.

The email was also copied to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar (left).

Mat Zain also alleged that “Zahid and Shafee were conspiring to deceive the FBI by penning the letter at the time that Shafee was being investigated by the police” under the Order to Investigate (OTI).

The Attorney-General’s Chambers was recently as reported to have “hidden” the OTI on Shafee, while he was appointed to lead the prosecution team in the recent prosecution appeal in the Sodomy II charge against opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Mat Zain said stern action should be taken against both Zahid and Shafee as this may lead to other officers in the force providing classified information to unauthorised parties in the future.

“If there is no harsh action taken on Zahid and Shafee under OSA, other police officers might also follow their footsteps in furnishing classified information to unauthorised persons,” he added in his letter.

Interestingly, Zahid had said that he could not divulge further information on Phua and his assistance to national security because those matters fall under the OSA.