“Those who say so are lying. It’s nonsense and it does not make sense,” Hasanah Ab Hamid, who headed the Malaysian External Intelligence Organisation (MEIO), a unit under the Prime Minister’s Department, said in a statement today.
Her statement was read by her lawyer Shaharudin Ali at a press conference hours after she lodged a police report today.
It is the first time Hasanah confirmed that she wrote the controversial letter dated May 4, 2018 to Gina Haspel, director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
The letter among others described then prime minister Najib Razak as a friend of the US, as opposed to the “anti-West, anti-Semite” Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who chairs Pakatan Harapan.
Najib has distanced himself from the letter.
‘No need to inform Najib’
Hasanah in her report today urged the police to investigate those behind the leaked contents of her letter, saying the document was confidential.
She said the letter was “drafted, vetted and analysed” by no less than 10 senior officers under her.
“It was made in good faith,” she said in the statement through Shaharudin.
She said it was normal to exchange letters between intelligence agencies, adding that they were state secrets.
On Najib’s statement that he was unaware of the letter, Shaharudin said there was no need for Hasanah to inform the prime minister or his Cabinet.
Shaharudin said his client suspected that it was someone with direct access to the files in her office.
She said the morale of MEIO agents was affected by the leak.
“If this leak can happen, the trust MEIO agents have in their sources could be destroyed.”