Saturday, April 11, 2009

A key supporter of Khairy under mahathirisme pressure: MACC closes in on embattled Sabah Youth chief

Sabah Umno Youth chief Japlin Akim, who was arrested by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on Thursday and remanded for three days to facilitate investigations, was released on bail today.

Japlin, who is also Sabah assistant minister for infrastructure development, is among the Umno leaders found guilty by the powerful Umno disciplinary board last month in the run-up to the party polls.

His party membership was subsequently suspended for three years. On Thursday, Japlin was detained along with a local contractor, Limus Jury, who was also freed on bail today.

Japlin’s bail was fixed at RM100,000 while Jury’s was fixed at RM300,000 bail. Their release from the Karamusing police station at around 6.15pm was facilitated by their lawyers, David Tan and Nobert Chin.

It was reliably learnt that magistrate Herlina Muse has during an ‘impromptu hearing’ held at the police station earlier, rejected MACC’s application to further remand the two for another four days after hearing arguments from both the MACC prosecuting officer and defence counsels.

“The arrest of the duo was conducted by MACC team from Putrajaya without the knowledge of the state MACC and it was believed to be connected to ‘money politics’ during the last Umno election,” said the source.

Sabah Chief Minister and state Umno chief Musa Aman had said thatJaplin could keep both his Usukan state seat and his assistant minister post despite having been found guilty by the party.
A key supporter of Khairy

Meanwhile, another two state Umno Youth leaders, Nizam Abu Bakar Titingan and Faizal Ampong were called in by the MACC for questioning.

They arrived at the Karamunsing police station shortly after both Japlin and Jury were released.

Nizam is currently the Sabah Umno deputy chief while Faizal is the former Batu Sapi Youth chief.

With the arrests in Sabah, it is believed that MACC is fast closing in on Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin who was given a slap on the wrist by Umno disciplinary board just before the party polls.

Japlin is known to be a key supporter of Khairy.

On March 17, Khairy was found guilty by the board for vote buying committed by one of his agents but was let off with a warning because of insufficient evidence.

Khairy, who has maintained he was innocent of any wrongdoing, was excluded from the cabinet line-up by new premier Najib Abdul Razak when he made the announcement on Thursday. MKINI

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