KUALA LUMPUR: Police have yet to establish the whereabouts of Low Taek Jho, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin confirmed in a statement to the Dewan Rakyat today.
He said that police investigations have revealed that the billionaire fugitive was moving from place to place to avoid detection.
Hamzah reiterated this in a written parliamentary reply to Wong Chen (Subang-PH) when the government was asked to verify if the criminal who has evaded capture since 2018 was indeed in China.
"As of now Jho Low is believed not to be in Malaysia or any place (for long) but he is moving from one place to another to avoid being detected as well as to complicate investigations."
To Wong's questions on what were the attempts made to extradite Low, Hamzah said his name was put on the Interpol's Red Alert list and the ministry was also working with enforcement authorities outside Malaysia to ascertain his location.
This was recorded in a written parliamentary reply to Wong Chen that echoed a statement by Hamzah in early November where the minister admitted that local and international enforcement agencies were still trying to locate the billionaire implicated in various charges including criminal conspiracy related to 1 Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).
The US Justice Department also alleged that among others, he along with former hip-hop artist Prakazrel "Pras" Michel, orchestrated a back-channel lobbying campaign "beginning in or about 2017 to "influence" the Donald Trump administration and public prosecutors to drop the 1MDB investigation and remove a Chinese dissident from the US.