CANBERRA, Australia — Malaysian authorities have decided against charging two Australian journalists who attempted to interview the Malaysian prime minister over corruption allegations, the newsmen’s state-owned employer said on Tuesday.
The decision came after the Australian government intervened and suggested the detention was part of a Malaysian crackdown on press freedom.
Australian Broadcasting Corp. television reporter Linton Besser and camera operator Louie Eroglu had been told to appear in a Sarawak state court on Tuesday morning charged with obstructing a public servant from discharging his duties when they questioned Prime Minister Najib Razak as he entered a mosque in the state capital Kuching on Saturday.
The state broadcaster reported that two hours after a press release was issued confirming the charge, the newsmen’s lawyer was phoned on Monday night and told they would not be charged and they were not required to attend court.
ABC said that no explanation was given for the change of heart.
The pair would be allowed to leave Malaysia after visiting a police station to complete paperwork, ABC said.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said on Monday that Australia was raising their case at the “highest levels within the Malaysian government.”
“I’m always concerned where there are instances of a crackdown on freedom of speech, in democracies particularly, and I’m also concerned about the freedom that journalists have to carry out their work in places around the world,” Bishop said.
Sarawak police said the pair were detained after they “crossed the security line and aggressively tried to approach” Najib, accusations that the ABC denied.
The pair were detained by police for six hours then told not to leave Kuching while authorities considered charges. A conviction could have resulted in two years in prison.
Najib is engulfed in a scandal over $681 million deposited into his bank accounts in early 2013. Critics accuse him of corruption and say the money came from an indebted state investment fund which he founded in 2009.
In January, Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali decided not to prosecute the prime minister, saying the money was a “personal donation” from the Saudi royal family.
Besser and Eroglu, on assignment for an investigative current affairs program, had asked Najib as he entered a mosque why the money had been deposited into his accounts, the ABC reported.
Najib did not respond and his security detail surrounded the two.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
No comments:
Post a Comment