Ex-Sarawak editor confesses

Screenshot of Lester in the video

PETALING JAYA: A former journalist, who claimed to have previously worked for Sarawak Report, alleged that opposition leaders had conspired with the whistleblower website on the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) issue.

In a three-minute video, Lester Melanyi, a former editor of Sarawak Tribune, claimed that he had met Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and his Latino friend in London after the Sarawak elections.

Lester claimed that Sarawak Report founder and editor Clare Rewcastle Brown arranged for the meeting with the opposition leader at a hotel after the Sarawak elections.

He alleged the next day they met Anwar and his Latino friend again for breakfast at a halal restaurant.

The video entitled Pendedahan Kerja Pemalsuan Dokumen #1MDB Oleh Sarawak Report was uploaded on YouTube on Wednesday.

Lester also said that Sarawak Report first focused on former Sarawak chief minister Tun Abdul Taib Mahmud before changing focus to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

He claimed that he was employed by the Bruno Manser Foundation (BMF) who were his paymasters in 2011 and was paid cash by Brown while he was in London for one year three months from 2012 to 2013.

Lester claimed that part of his job was to gather information for the Sarawak Report and to write reports for Radio Free Sarawak and they communicated through emails but if urgent Brown would call him.

When he returned to Sarawak, Lester claimed that his salary was wired via Western Union under his brother-in-law's name.

Lester also claimed that Brown informed him about the “1MDB plan” in January this year.

He said that Brown told him that they had an important mission for the opposition leader and that he had do it according to what two other opposition MPs wanted.

“But what they showed me was some of the fakes I had to get from London like emails and everything because all these are created. I told her I don’t want to be part of this scheme," he claimed in Part 1 of the uploaded video.

On Wednesday, Barisan Nasional strategic communications director Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan had stated that he had seen a video confession by a former Sarawak Report editor allegedly involved in forging documents to smear the prime minister and 1MDB.

Rahman said a police report had been lodged and the video handed over to the police.

In response to Rahman's statement, Brown dismissed the claims by Rahman saying that Lester had never worked for them.

She said that Lester had never written a single word for Sarawak Report.

"Let us confirm.  Lester Melanyi has never ever written a word of Sarawak Report - sorry Lester, but we are out of your league.

"We are surprised these types are teaming up with the man who got sacked from Sarawak Tribune for publishing the Allah cartoons," she said.