Ramkarpal said Najmuddin was a senior police officer and not a country bumpkin and as such, he would have had knowledge of the elementary accounting procedures and practices in Australia.
“What is Zahid’s message to the world here? Is he saying that one of this country’s most senior police officers was ignorant of the law and that it’s ok that he was?
“Furthermore, if such an explanation from Najmuddin was capable of absolving him from liability, why then are the Australian authorities still investigating the matter?” asked Ramkarpal in a statement.
Zahid was reported as saying that Najmuddin might have been “naive” about Australian laws concerning remittances to fund his children’s education.
“This issue of remittance surfaced back in 2016. Najmuddin has already given me his explanation on the matter, and I am confident of his honesty.
“However, he might have been naive about laws surrounding the remittance, because although the money was acquired from the sale of a house, it exceeded A$10,000, which is the limit set by the Australian government,” Berita Harian had quoted Zahid as saying.
Last Friday, Australian authorities reportedly froze a bank account belonging to Najmuddin containing more than A$320,000 (almost RM1 million).
The Australian federal police noted a “flurry of suspicious cash deposits” into Najmuddin’s Commonwealth Bank “Goal Saver” bank account, which had been lying dormant since it was opened in 2011.
The unnamed depositor visited branches and automatic teller machines (ATMs) across the country, from Biloela in Queensland to Devonport in northern Tasmania and Lakemba in western Sydney, as well as the commercial centre in Melbourne.
Ramkarpal said it was unlikely that the Australian authorities would cease their investigations merely because Zahid was satisfied with Najmuddin’s explanation or that he had been cleared by Bukit Aman in an internal probe.
As such, he said, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) should independently investigate Najmuddin as failure to do so could be deemed a dereliction of duty.