KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian police have arrested a former ruling party official who has traveled the globe to highlight corruption allegations against Prime Minister Najib Razak, his lawyer said Saturday, accusing the government of seeking to silence the whistleblower.
Khairuddin Abu Hassan was arrested by police Friday after he was stopped from leaving for the United States where he was to meet with FBI officials, his lawyer Matthias Chang said.
He has been charged with plotting to “undermine parliamentary democracy,” a vague charge that critics have said is open to government abuse.
“They want to stop him traveling and maybe to intimidate him,” Chang said.
Police did not respond to requests for comment.
Najib’s government has moved to quash further scrutiny of the revelation in July that nearly $700 million was deposited into his personal bank accounts.
The government has called the money “political donations” from Middle Eastern sources but refuses to give more details.
Najib subsequently sacked his attorney general and deputy prime minister and made other personnel moves that appear to have stalled investigations.
Khairuddin, a former division head in the ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO), has demanded transparency over the Najib funds as well as at state investment company 1MDB, which Najib launched.
Najib and the company are under fire over allegations that perhaps more than a billion dollars went missing from overseas deals involving 1MDB, which is now struggling under massive debts.
With no progress seen in Malaysian investigations, Khairuddin has recently traveled to Switzerland, Britain, France, and Hong Kong to highlight the case to authorities, Chang said.
Various foreign investigations have been launched.
A magistrate on Saturday ordered Khairuddin held for a week for investigations, Chang said.
The scandals have deeply tarnished Najib, a self-proclaimed reformer. He dismisses them as a conspiracy to unseat him.
Last month, tens of thousands of protesters paralyzed Kuala Lumpur with a two-day demonstration to demand Najib’s resignation and reform of Malaysia’s 58-year-old regime whose critics accuse it of repression, corruption and electoral chicanery to stay in power.
Whistleblower who targeted Premier Najib Razak arrested
Whistleblower who targeted Premier Najib Razak arrested
First urban cable car unveiled outside Paris
- The cable car will carry some 11,000 passengers per day in its 105 gondolas
- The 138-million-euro project was cheaper to build than a subway, officials said
PARIS: Gondolas floated above a cityscape in the southeastern suburbs of Paris Saturday as the first urban cable car in the French capital’s region was unveiled.
Officials inaugurated the C1 line in the suburb of Limeil-Brevannes in the presence of Valerie Pecresse, the head of the Ile-de-France region, and the mayors of the towns served by the cable car.
The 4.5-kilometer route connects Creteil to Villeneuve-Saint-Georges and passes through Limeil-Brevannes and Valenton.
The cable car will carry some 11,000 passengers per day in its 105 gondolas, each able to accommodate ten seated passengers.
The total journey will take 18 minutes, including stops along the way, compared to around 40 minutes by bus or car, connecting the isolated neighborhoods to the Paris metro’s line 8.
The 138-million-euro project was cheaper to build than a subway, officials said.
“An underground metro would never have seen the light of day because the budget of more than billion euros could never have been financed,” said Gregoire de Lasteyrie, vice president of the Ile-de-France regional council in charge of transport.
It is France’s seventh urban cable car, with aerial tramways already operating in cities including Brest, Saint-Denis de La Reunion and Toulouse.
Historically used to cross rugged mountain terrain, such systems are increasingly being used to link up isolated neighborhoods.
France’s first urban cable car was built in Grenoble, nestled at the foot of the Alps, in 1934. The iconic “bubbles” have become one of the symbols of the southeastern city.
