‘M’sia can’t be penalised for refusing aid to Swiss in 1MDB probe’

However, it is diplomatically not correct because there is a mutual government to government treaty, says lawyer.

S-N-Nair_1mdb_swiss ‘M’sia can’t be penalised for refusing aid to Swiss in 1MDB probe’

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia cannot be penalised for refusing assistance to Switzerland under the mutual legal assistance (MLA) into a probe over 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

Lawyer S N Nair said the MLA was a private treaty between two sovereign nations although they can be selective when extending assistance, or rejecting it, without giving any reasons.

“It is Malaysia’s discretion in the 1MDB case not to extend assistance to the Swiss authorities,” Nair said, adding that Putrajaya could offer help to Berne in future in other cases.

He said it would be diplomatically not correct not to offer assistance when requested because there is a mutual government-to-government treaty.

However, he said where international treaties or United Nations conventions are concerned, Malaysia could face international sanctions if the authorities here failed to honour them.

“In that case , Malaysia will have to adhere to them since we have signed and ratified those agreements,” Nair said, adding that he was merely stating the legal position in the 1MDB matter.

He said this in response to Swiss attorney-general Michael Lauber’s revelation last week that Malaysian authorities would not reply to the Swiss request to probe into the alleged embezzlement and money-laundering linked to 1MDB.

“They just said that under their legal framework, they can’t reply,” Lauber told UK’s Financial Times (FT) in an interview.

The FT reported that the Malaysian Attorney-General’s Chambers denied it was attempting to frustrate the Swiss probe but cited the country’s “continuing criminal investigation by Malaysian police in relation to matters concerning 1MDB”.

FT quoted the AG’s Chambers as saying “the attorney-general is of the opinion that these requests could prejudice a criminal matter in Malaysia”, adding there is “no issue of Malaysia blocking the Swiss criminal inquiry”.

On Oct 28, AG Mohamed Apandi told reporters that his chambers was in the process of replying to a second MLA request by Switzerland.

This came after Apandi said he did not receive the first application.

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