KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 24 — Former Umno leader Datuk Seri Khairuddin Abu Hassan has instructed his lawyers to challenge the lawfulness of his detention under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012.
His lawyer Muhammad Rafique Rashid Ali said after meeting with Khairuddin today that they will be mounting the challenge soon and that it was legally within his client’s right to do so.
“We have specific instruction from our client to file for an order from court declaring that his detention is illegal,” he told reporters outside the Dang Wangi district police headquarters.
“He is still calm, cool, and collected. He has given us specific instructions, his team of lawyers, all six of us, to challenge the detention.”
Khairuddin had been on a global tour to solicit investigations by other countries into 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), after US-based business daily, the Wall Street Journal published a series of reports detailing dubious activity allegedly involving the state-owned firm, beginning with an exposé in July on the US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) deposit in Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s personal accounts.
He had also initially lodged a police report in regards to 1MDB late last year, reportedly because criticisms against the state-fund went “ignored” at the time.
“I just want to stress that since December 12, 2014, when the first initial report was lodged by Datuk Khairuddin, he was ever-willing to cooperate with the police. He was willing to cooperate with the police from day one,” Muhammad Rafique said.
Fahmi Abd Moin, another lawyer for Khairuddin, said there were three possible outcomes to the detention.
“He could either be charged, or secondly be released on police bail, or thirdly, be released completely without charge,” he said.
“The police so far have been very cooperative, and have allowed his wife, Datin Umie Aida to meet him just now. And for that we thank the police,” he added.
Khairuddin was initially arrested last Friday under Section 124C pertaining to acts against parliamentary democracy, the day he was reportedly due to fly to New York in the US to meet with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and was remanded a further six days on Saturday.
He was rearrested yesterday ahead of the expiry of his remand today, as police forwarded the investigations from Section 124C to Section 124K and 124L of the Penal Code, which refers to sabotage and attempts to sabotage the state respectively.
The said investigations, according to Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Noor Rashid Ibrahim, made Khairuddin applicable to the detention provisions of SOSMA, which was introduced to provide for special measures relating to security offences for the purpose of maintaining public order.
