Home Ministry to cooperate with Thai police in PetroSaudi information leaking case

Its minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said, in welcoming the arrest of the Swiss national, his ministry was ready to assist in extraditing several of the suspects involved to enable Thai authorities to carry out their investigations.

He said his ministry was also informed that Justo was the individual responsible to channel inaccurate information to the Sarawak Report blog that triggered numerous unfounded allegations against 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

"The police have also taken several measures that included looking from the aspect of forensic data downloaded and used by the former official probably for bad motives or as the mastermind in channeling inaccurate information to the Sarawak Report regarding business transactions between 1MDB and PetroSaudi.

"Sarawak Report later become a source of false information which eventually was reported once more in the media openly," he told a media conference at the instilling good values event with the minister here Wednesday.

He said his ministry was made to understand that based on forensic investigation, a portion of the emails and documents released in the blog had been exaggerated after these were stolen from the PetroSaudi data base.

PetroSaudi, an international oil and gas industry company based in Saudi Arabia attracted attention in Malaysia following its previous cooperation with 1MDB.

Ahmad Zahid said his ministry was also made to understand that data set stolen was incomplete as it had undergone a professional editing process after it was taken from the PetroSaudi system with the bad intention to attack and destroy the image of a certain individual.

Several newspapers on Wednesday reported that Justo was arrested by Thai police for allegedly blackmailing and extorting PetroSaudi as was reported by the media in Thailand and the company.