Thursday 1 August 2013

JMM lodges police report against Suaram

ILLEGAL BODY: Organisation defamed PM during buka puasa event on July 19, says Azwanddin

KUALA LUMPUR: JARINGAN Melayu Malaysia (JMM) has lodged a police report against Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) for organising events and soliciting donations.

JMM president Azwanddin Hamzah claimed that Suaram was an illegal body and was not registered with the Registrar of Companies.

He said Suaram had organised a breaking fast event on July 19 at the PJ Civic Centre and had collected more than RM100,000 in donations.

He said that the organisation had also defamed Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak at the same event.

The fundraiser was purportedly to raise money for Suaram's Ops Scorpene campaign.

Suaram is being investigated by RoC for possibly being an illegal entity.

"Why are they allowed to conduct events and solicit for donations when they are not a registered body?

"I urge the Inland Revenue Board and the RoC to investigate it as soon as possible," he said outside the Dang Wangi police headquarters yesterday.

Azwanddin, who had tried to enter the fundraising event last week, said the organisers had barred him from doing so as they knew he was JMM president.

"Despite paying for it, they barred me from entering. But seven of my colleagues (from JMM) got in and they related to me what had happened inside."

He said there were 75 tables at the event and the cost was about RM1,500 per table.

"Besides soliciting for donations, they went on to defame Najib and tried to link him with the murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu."

The New Straits Times yesterday confirmed that the French inquiry into the Scorpene deal was not looking at Altantuya's murder but focused on the alleged corruption on the part of French naval giant DCNS.

He said Suaram should stop trying to link the prime minister with the murdered Mongolian or the Scorpene deal because the French courts had established that there was no link between Najib and the latter.

"They keep telling the people what the late private investigator P. Balasubramaniam had said. This cannot be verified."

He added that the authorities should stop Suaram from organising such events in the future as it could be detrimental to the country.

Azwanddin said notable opposition politicians had attended the event, including Lembah Pantai member of parliament Nurul Izzah Anwar