Albert Tang, who said he had been engaged by the Australian consulate, told The Malaysian Insider “they were just carrying out their duties. They asked the prime minister questions. They stopped when told. They denied any accusation of obstructing anybody and there was no security line.”
The two are reporter Linton Besser, 39, and camera operator Louis Eroglu, 51 of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Four Corners current affairs programme.
Sally Neighbour, the programme’s executive producer, said on Twitter yesterday that the two were arrested “after trying to question Prime Minister Najib Razak over a corruption scandal.”
Najib was making a walkabout while on an official visit to Darul Ehsan Mosque in Kota Sentosa at 8.35pm last night.
Tang said he was not aware of what questions had been asked of Najib.
Police picked up the two men from their hotel. “They were very cooperative with the police,” Tang said.
Police said the two were released at 3am after their statements had been recorded, and their passports confiscated pending investigations on a charge of obstructing a public official in the course of his duties. They must report to the police station on Tuesday.
Sarawak CID chief Dev Kumar M M Sree Shunmugan said the two men had crossed a security line and had aggressively tried to approach Najib.
“Both of them were subsequently arrested for failing to comply with police instructions not to cross the security line,” he said in a press statement earlier today.
A report in The Australian newspaper said Besser and Eroglu had been in Malaysia for several days researching a story on “the multi-billion dollar corruption scandal involving the country’s 1Malaysia Development Berhad state investment fund as well as the murder of a glamorous Mongolian, Altantuya Shaaribuu, whose death has been linked to the country’s highest office.”
Yesterday they had attended a press conference by A S Selvi, widow of the late private investigator P Balasubramaiam, who made a sensational sworn statement in 2008 concerning Najib and a Najib associate, Razak Baginda, implicating them both in the Altantuya case. He later retracted his statement and went into exile in India with his family.
His widow had appeared at a news conference to plead for aid to meet the schooling expenses of her children, but ended the news conference abruptly after being questioned by Besser.
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