‘AG must explain why charges against Teo were dropped’

KOTA KINABALU: The Attorney General needs to clarify the reason behind the dropping of 146 charges involving RM32mil money laundering against former state water department deputy director Teo Chee Kong (pic), in Sabah’s Watergate scandal.

Sabah Law Society (SLS) president Roger Chin said that the case attracted high public interest and it was important for the AG and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to make public the reason as it “strikes high in the faith of the administration and governance.”

“If a good reason exists, transparency demands that this should be at the very least indicated to the public.

“Long gone are the days of a “father knows best” and “do as I say” without the need to give an explanation,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Chin said that SLS agreed with the Malaysian Bar’s call to Attorney General’s Chamber (AGC) to provide reasons to the public when it decides to discontinue prosecution at any stage in cases of public interest, regardless of the personality.

The Malaysian Bar, in making the call during the Opening of the Legal Year 2022, said that there was no doubt Article 145(3) of the Federal Constitution empowers the Attorney General with “wide discretion” to conduct, institute or discontinue any proceedings for a criminal offence, but this discretion was not absolute and unfettered.

On Friday, Teo was ordered to pay RM30mil as punishment that was accompanied by a discharge not amounting to an acquittal after the Sessions Court judge was informed that the prosecuting team led by MACC had opted not to proceed with the case.

Chin said Section 92 of Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 (Amla) allowed for relevant enforcement agency, with the consent of the Public Prosecutor, to make the decision of whether to compound, or not to charge.

Chin also pointed out that Teo, since being charged in December 2017, had failed in various legal bids in the High Court to quash all 146 corruption charges made against him.

Following the legal challenges being dismissed by the higher court, the Sessions Court began hearings since Aug 6, 2019 where the prosecution had so far called five of some 200 witnesses.

Teo was among four people charged with money laundering. The others were the then Sabah Water Department director Awang Mohd Tahir Mohd Talib, 59, his wife Fauziah Piut, 56, and state Finance Ministry adviser and retired deputy director of the department Lim Lam Beng, 67.

They were slapped with se- parate money laundering charges involving RM61.5mil on Dec 29, 2016.

Their cases are ongoing.