Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali must explain publicly why Attorney-General’s Chambers withdrew all the charges against National Feedlot Corporation Sdn Bhd (NFC) executive chairperson Mohamad Salleh Ismail.
Salleh was slapped with two counts of criminal breach of trust and two counts of violation the Companies Act 1965 in March 2013, but was acquitted yesterday after the AGC withdrew all the charges following a representation letter submitted by the defence counsel on Nov 4.
Salleh has been trying to strike out the CBT charges against him. However the application was rejected by the Sessions Court, the High Court and the Court of Appeal. By dropping the charges against Sallah, is Apandi hinting that the previous AG Abdul Gani Patail has done a lousy job and was wrong to press charges against Salleh in the first place?
More importantly, why was Salleh acquitted and not merely discharged?
Earlier, DPP Syed Faisal Syed Amir told the court that AG Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali had consented to give Salleh a discharge not amounting to an acquittal.
But after objection from Salleh’s counsel, Shafee Abdullah, the court stood down for over 90 minutes, subsequently Syed Faisal submitted that the prosecution had no objection to the bid for an acquittal.
Did Apandi agree to give Salleh an acquittal? And what were the reasons for him to do so?
Apandi also need to explain if legal action has been taken against NFC to recover the RM250 million loans. NFC supposed to repay its RM250 million soft loan from 2012 until 2028. However, the firm was only able to fork out a total RM34.98 million as repayment, in 2012 and 2013.
Apandi as the AG of the country owes a duty to all Malaysians to ensure that all criminals are punished accordingly and taxpayers’ monies are secured. By granting Sallah an acquittal, basically Apandi is saying that there is no wrongdoer in NFC scandal. But how about the taxpayers’ monies? Is there any hope for us to recover that?