Mahathir says govt equally guilty of blocking Palestine aid
Published on: Saturday, December 02, 2023
By:
FMT, Faiz Zainudin
Dr Mahathir Mohamad speaking at a ceramah in Kemaman, on the eve of a by-election being held today.
PETALING JAYA: Dr Mahathir Mohamad has accused the government of being equally guilty of blocking funds meant for Palestinians after the bank accounts of an NGO was frozen on suspicion of embezzlement.
The former prime minister said the move by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to freeze the accounts came off as an attempt to prevent aid from reaching Palestinians who are affected by the war in Gaza.
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“So this means the party responsible for blocking aid is the government themselves. They (the government) do not want the money collected for Palestinians to reach them,” he said at a ceramah for the Kemaman by-election.
On Nov 21, the anti-graft agency froze 41 bank accounts belonging to Aman Palestin and several other companies – which had a combined total of RM15.8 million – as part of its investigation into the alleged misappropriation of RM70 million by the NGO.
The investigation involved claims that the NGO funnelled the money into these companies.
Yesterday, MACC chief Azam Baki rejected Mahathir’s suggestion to release RM10 million from the frozen bank accounts in order to send winter aid to the Palestinians.
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Azam said investigations were ongoing on the veracity of the transactions the NGO was alleged to have made. He added that the accounts must remain frozen until the probe was completed.
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