Home Ministry: Action will be taken against The Edge for 'menguli fakta' on 1MDB and PetroSaudi

PUTRAJAYA: Action will be taken against the weekly business publication The Edge and UK-based website Sarawak Report for allegedly reporting inaccurate news about 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and PetroSaudi International.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said investigations carried by authorities in Thailand have found that former PetroSaudi International Ltd director Xavier Andre Justo had obtained
the unsubstantiated information via illegal means from the oil company’s email server on its business dealings with 1MDB.
"Based on forensic investigations, some parts of the emails and documents published in Sarawak Report have been tampered with after being stolen from PetroSaudi.
"The incomplete data was downloaded and used by Justo. It was later discovered that he had doctored the facts," Ahmad Zahid said.
“Then the inaccurate facts were analysed and picked up by The Edge and Sarawak Report.”
Thai police arrested Justo on Monday for allegedly blackmailing PetroSaudi for RM9.98 million in exchange for not disclosing confidential information about its deals with 1MDB.
Zahid Hamidi said The Edge and Sarawak Report had spinned the facts (menguli fakta) in publishing the purported transactions between PetroSaudi and 1MDB.
(PetroSaudi International went into a joint venture with 1MDB in 2009, in which some RM3.5 billion was invested in the London-based company. But the arrangement was cancelled some months later.)
“We feel that The Edge and its owner Datuk Tong Kooi Ong have to be responsible for their action in picking up false information. They have to face the consequences for spinning facts and hiding the truth from readers,” Ahmad Zahid said, adding that The Edge could face the music under the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984.
“As for Sarawak Report, we know who are the people behind this online portal and we hope that Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission can take appropriate action,” he told reporters before breaking fast here today.
He said both Thailand and Malaysia are working together to scrutinise the emails and telephone records of the people behind the smear campaign involving 1MDB and PetroSaudi.
Asked if Malaysia would request from Thailand to extradite Justo, he said: “Let the Thai police conduct the investigation and we will assist in whichever we can.”