Singapore police said it had handled all of Bukit Aman’s requests in relation to the case promptly.
The Singapore Police Force have been facilitative with their counterpart in Malaysia on the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) investigations.
In a statement today, the Singapore police clarified that all requests for assistance from the Malaysian police have been dealt with promptly.
This was in reference to recent news reports about Malaysian police awaiting Singapore’s permission and assistance to conduct further investigations into Datuk Dr Tawfiq Ayman.
For the investigations into Tawfiq, it said the Malaysian police made a request to travel to Singapore to conduct further investigations on Dec 2, 2021.
The Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) responded on Dec 6, 2021 to agree to the request.
However, it took the Malaysian police nearly two months to respond when their Singapore counterparts proposed dates for the visit.
“We proposed multiple dates for the visit, and also proposed arrangements to comply with the Covid-19 border measures. There were multiple correspondences subsequently.
“In the last correspondence on Jan 10, 2022, CAD proposed for the visit to then be conducted between Feb 8 and 9, 2022, and the Malaysian police responded on Mar 8, 2022, when they requested to enter Singapore in mid to late March.”
The statement, which was shared by the Singapore High Commission, added that the republic has facilitated Malaysia’s 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB)-related investigations in other ways since 2015, including arranging for the repatriation of about S$88 million of seized 1MDB-related money to the Malaysian government.
“We will continue to facilitate requests for assistance in accordance with Singapore’s legal framework,” it read.
On March 3, Bukit Aman said it was waiting for the green light from their Singapore counterparts to cross the border to continue investigating graft allegations against Tawfiq.
Its Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Kamarudin Md Din said that the surge in Covid-19 cases due to the Omicron variant in Malaysia and Singapore had disrupted the progress of the investigation.
“We will go as soon as they allow us to cross the border,” Kamarudin said.
On March 8, deputy law minister Mas Ermieyati Samsudin told Parliament that police were supposed to continue with the investigation in Singapore but were unable to do so because the border had been closed.
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