Lester Melanyi talks of plot to discredit government

Former Sarawak Tribune editor Lester Melanyi today claimed that the Sarawak Report news portal founder Clare Rewcastle-Brown and the opposition have been hatching a plot to discredit the government since a few years ago.

He said he would be naming more opposition politicians involved in videos to be released soon.

In an interview with Bernama here, Melanyi claimed that Rewcastle-Brown told him of the smear plan after her meeting with several opposition politicians in Singapore in 2012.

"I was always informed by Clare (on things they discussed). Generally, they will discuss on how to discredit the government and tamper documents.

"The plan was not hatched yesterday. It was well planned sior many years. Since early 2012, or earlier," he said, adding that 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) was just one of the issues they were targeting.

Melanyi had appeared in an expose video released on YouTube linking Rewcastle-Brown and several opposition politicians who he said were falsifying documents connected to 1MDB.

He said the coming videos would be more "explosive" and more personalities involved in the plot would be named.

"They will be more explosive. Doubts will be cleared," he said.

The videos are actually one video broken into several parts. Part one was released on July 15, and the second on Monday.

The third part is expected to be released this weekend, Melanyi said.

Asked why he was disclosing the plot only now, Melanyi said he did not have sufficient information in 2012.

Yesterday, Bernama reported that police officers from Bukit Aman had recorded Melanyi's statement on the contents of the video on July 17 and 18 in Kuching.

Melanyi said he told the police the same thing that he said in the video.