KUALA LUMPUR: Fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, has been assured that he will be given police protection if he returns to Malaysia.
Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Abdul Hamid Bador said protection would also be accorded to his accomplices, all of whom had allegedly stolen billions of ringgit from 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).
“I can guarantee his safety. If he feels he is innocent, then come back and face the law of the country. All of these stories saying he would be tortured if he comes back are nonsense, because we uphold the rule of law.
“I can assure him of police protection, not only him, but also to his family and his gang,” he told reporters after the launch of this year’s Op Selamat for Hari Raya at Menara TM.
Low was previously reported to be hiding in China. So far, an Interpol red alert has been placed on him and the Immigration Department has cancelled his Malaysian passport.
Hamid also called on Low to stop wasting everybody’s time as the country needs to move on from the ugly 1MDB episode.
“The country must move on, so we have to settle this 1MDB fiasco as soon as possible. Please don’t waste our time. We need to progress and we cannot be stuck in this time tunnel forever.”
On former SRC International Sdn Bhd managing director Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, who is also currently in hiding, Hamid said police know where he is, just like they know where Low is hiding.
Asked if Nik Faisal was currently in Indonesia, Hamid said that was not the case anymore due to his own exposé in 2015.
“He was there (Indonesia) but remember, the day I revealed there were efforts to hide him somewhere and also to migrate him to a certain country (Indonesia)?
“It didn’t happen because it was prematurely exposed by me in 2015. But even so, we know where he is hiding at the moment,” he said.
Last month, the High Court was told that Nik Faisal was one of the signatories for the dubious transactions of RM50 million from SRC to Gandingan Mentari Sdn Bhd in 2014 and 2015.
This includes the RM42 million said to have been channelled into the bank accounts of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who is facing several charges in relation to the misappropriation of SRC funds.
Asked about the raid conducted at Deloitte Malaysia yesterday, Hamid said he had yet to be briefed but believed investigators “managed to get something”.
“It has to do with the 1MDB case, but I haven’t been briefed yet. I believe there are a lot of things they (investigators) got from the raid.”
At least 11 boxes of documents were believed to have been taken from the Deloitte offices in Taman Tun Dr Ismail during a raid by federal Commercial Crimes Investigation Department police.
Deloitte had audited 1MDB's financial statements for 2013 and 2014 before withdrawing as the fund's auditor in early 2016.
Deloitte was 1MDB's third auditor after the fund fired its earlier auditors, KPMG and Ernst & Young.
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