Tok-Kok IGP exposed

Malaysia Chronicle:

LAUGHING STOCK – MAHATHIR CONTRADICTS HIS OWN ‘MYSTERY ISLAND’ TOP COP & CLOSEST CRONY DAIM: ‘WE DON’T EVEN KNOW WHERE IS JHO LOW’

DR M DENIES ANY NEGOTIATIONS, CONTACT WITH NAJIB’S 1MDB CO-CONSPIRATOR – EVEN AS HIS HAND-PICKED IGP SWEARS JHO NOT IN CYPRUS BUT ON ‘AN ISLAND’ SOMEWHERE WHOSE GOVT HE IS TRYING TO NEGOTIATE WITH TO SECURE JHO’S RETURN

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said Putrajaya did not know the whereabouts of Low Taek Jho and as such, was not holding direct negotiations with the fugitive businessperson.

This contradicts claims made by Mahathir as well as Inspector-General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador and others who have repeatedly claimed to know Low’s location. In fact, Hamid today claimed Low was hiding out on an island.

Mahathir made the claim during an interview with the Financial Times (FT), published online today, at the sidelines of the Asean Summit in Bangkok.

The interviewer, FT’s Singapore and Malaysia correspondent Stefania Palma, had asked him if Malaysia was conducting its own negotiations with Low directly to retrieve 1MDB-linked assets.

“No (negotiations with Low). We have no contact with him. We don’t even know where he is,” Mahathir said.

This came on the back of a settlement reached between Low, more popularly known as Jho Low, and US authorities.

He also did not respond directly when asked if Low’s deal with the US – which would bring the Department of Justice’s total retrieval of assets and funds linked to the scandal to over U$$1 billion – came as a surprise.

“Well, the amount (allegedly misappropriated from 1MDB by Low) is much bigger. This is only a part of the money made used of by Jho Low to buy properties […] so we are still going after the rest of the money.”

The US deal, however, does not release Low and his family of any criminal culpability in the scandal.


IGP: Low on an island

In June, last year, Mahathir stated Malaysia did not have extradition arrangements in the country in which Low is believed to be hiding.

Mahathir’s close advisor, Council of Eminent Persons (CEP) chairperson Daim Zainuddin (photo, below), too, claimed last year that authorities here were in the know as to Low’s whereabouts that Low had contacted his officers seeking a deal for immunity in exchange for his locating 1MDB-linked assets.

In recent days, it was reported that Low, who is on the lam to evade charges in the US and Malaysia on 1MDB, had secured a Cyprus citizenship. It was also claimed he was hiding out in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Both claims have been denied by Hamid. The police chief today revealed that Low is believed to be “on an island“.

Hamid, according to Free Malaysia Today, said it would be impossible for Low to leave the country he is in.

“I’m using a lot of ways to bring him back, not just official […] semi-official ways as well.

“My patience has limits when I’m negotiating with the said country because we gave them our full cooperation in all issues on policing.

“I’m extremely disappointed when my request isn’t entertained, and they give excuses like ‘he went through plastic surgery’, ‘he has left and gone to Cyprus’ or ‘he has gone to UAE’, which doesn’t make sense at all,” the IGP reportedly said at a press conference today.

island my kha-chnooi (@$$)