KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 12 — Alleging selective prosecution, Umno Youth chief Datuk Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki today urged his fellow party colleagues who have been charged and acquitted of corruption to haul former attorney-general Tan Sri Tommy Thomas to court to clear their name.
Thomas had been the public prosecutor when the charges were made.
“Once again, Umno Youth wants the government to immediately establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry to take stern action on all Tommy Thomas’ revelations, which clearly reveal the existence of selective prosecution and even political interference in the national judiciary.
“Umno Youth would also like to suggest that all Umno leaders who have been acquitted by the court agree to sue Tommy Thomas who is proven to have malicious intent only to embarrass and damage Umno's reputation with selective political prosecution,” Asyraf claimed in his policy speech at the Malay national party’s general assembly at the World Trade Centre here.
He recalled that Thomas previously asserted political interference in the country’s judicial system, adding that the lawyer should face the same legal consequences.
Several Umno leaders have been charged in court with various corruption offences, from former president and ex-prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to his successor and incumbent president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
Najib has been found guilty and is currently imprisoned for embezzling RM42 million from state-owned investment firm SRC International while still facing trial on other charges.
Zahid is similarly on trial for dozens of corruption charges but was made deputy prime minister in Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s government.
Among the Umno leaders who have been acquitted of their corruption is former minister Tan Sri Shahrir Samad who was last week freed from a money-laundering case over his alleged failure to include a RM1 million cheque from Najib in his income tax declaration, after the prosecution dropped the case.
As for Asyraf’s demand for an RCI, the Cabinet yesterday agreed to establish one to further examine the allegations made by Thomas in his controversial memoir, My Story: Justice in the Wilderness.
According to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, the RCI’s terms of commission will have a scope wider than the proposal’s recommendations.
Thomas’ book, published in January 2021, caused a public uproar resulting in the cabinet establishing a special task force as a fact-finding body to conduct an in-depth review and analysis of its contents.
More than a hundred police reports were lodged against Thomas for his book.
