KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 4 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today denied that his meeting with Indonesian oil tycoon Mohammad Riza Chalid had anything to do with the mining of rare earth elements (REE).
No application for REE had been submitted during the meeting despite caretaker Kedah menteri besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor’s claims, Anwar was reported as saying by Free Malaysia Today.
“I was granted an audience by Sultan Sallehuddin Sultan Badlishah, and my friend (Mohammad Riza) was with me at the meeting at the palace,” he was quoted as saying to reporters at Bangsar earlier today.
“I don’t want to relate the matter to anything more than that.”
The real issue was the theft of REE and the granting of approvals to a Chinese company without permission, he reportedly added, referring to Sanusi.
Yesterday, Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail’s warned Sanusi to brace himself for a court reckoning once the police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission have completed their investigations of the rare earth elements (REE) theft in Bukit Enggang, Sik.
On Wednesday, Sanusi alleged that Anwar had brought Mohammad Riza to Kedah for the purpose of applying to mine REE before the dissolution of Parliament last year.
Sanusi, who is the Perikatan Nasional (PN) election director, then said that this was the reason behind Saifuddin’s continuous ‘attack’ on him over the REE issue.
Saifuddin had previously claimed that Sanusi’s incompetence in managing the Kedah government was the reason for the REE theft in Sik.
Last month, Saifuddin revealed that Sanusi was allegedly fined RM500,000 last year by the Lands and Mines Offices for stealing REE as the chairman of the Menteri Besar Incorporated (MBI) of Kedah.
