AGC didn't charge Musa Aman for corruption as money was 'political donations' says MACC

PUTRAJAYA: Tan Sri Musa Aman (pic) was not charged for corruption because the Attorney General's Chambers in 2012 had deemed the money he received to be "political donations".

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) confirmed that an investigation paper on Musa was submitted to the Attorney General's Chambers (AGC) on July 2012.

However, the AGC chose not to prosecute the former Sabah chief minister, due to its policy of “not charging cases related to political donations”.

“The commission had already conducted its investigations into Tan Sri Musa, after which the investigation paper on the accused was submitted to the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) on July 2012 for further action.

“However, the AGC then decided not to pursue with any charges, as they were of the view that the investigation was related to a political donation.

“At that particular time, it was the policy of the AGC not to charge any cases related to political donations,” said the MACC in a statement on Friday (Nov 9).

However, the MACC reviewed the investigation paper against Musa a few months ago after receiving new information on the case.

“The MACC had resubmitted the investigation paper to the AGC to be reviewed.

“The Attorney General then decided to charge Tan Sri Musa with 35 corruption charges under Section 11(a) of the Anti-Corruption Act 1997,” said the statement.

On Wednesday (Nov 7), Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng had demanded former Attorney General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail explain why Musa was not charged, even though MACC had built a case against him.

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in response said there might be reasons why the AGC then did not take any action then, adding that the MACC should also come up with an explanation.

On Monday (Nov 5), Musa was slapped with 35 counts of corruption after it was alleged that he had received up to RM253mil in kickbacks related to logging contracts.