A former senior police officer has taken attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali to task for claiming the prime minister is not consulted in prosecutorial matters.

Former Kuala Lumpur CID chief Mat Zain Ibrahim alleged that in some cases, the AG did consult the sitting PM before making a decision.

The senior cop also claimed to have evidence of this.

Previously, Apandi had said an AG "would use his discretion and he did not need to consult anyone, including the PM”.

To prove his point, Mat Zain showed Malaysiakini a letter dated Feb 13, 1999, of a request from the head of prosecution division of the Attorney- General's Chambers Azahar Mohamed (now a Federal Court judge) addressed to Mat Zain over the "black eye" case when he was KL CID chief.

[READ the entire letter here]

“The first two paragraphs of the letter to me clearly stated that the AG (the late Mohtar Abdullah) wanted me to hand over the investigation papers of the 'black-eye' case immediately.

"This is for the AG to bring to the attention of the then prime minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, after the AG received a letter of representation from former inspector-general of police Abdul Rahim Noor's lawyers,” he said.

Mat Zain said Apandi may be saying that he has never consulted the PM, but he “stretched his luck a little bit too far” if he is saying the previous AGs including Abu Talib Othman and Abdul Gani Patail did not either.

Apandi in a recent interview had said he has powers to prosecute under Article 145(3) of the Federal Constitution, and need not consult anyone.

“Whenever I want to charge anybody, I won’t go running to the prime minister. 'Hey Mr PM, can I charge these people'. No. No way. I don’t consult anyone.

“It’s my discretion. The constitution says so. The law says so and I exercise it as such,” he was quoted as saying.

He added that this was the practice of all AGs before him, and challenged those who doubted him to check with Abu Talib and Gani.

“Ask any AG […] the government doesn’t have any say,” Apandi reportedly said.

RCI was about to start

Mat Zain said when Azahar sent the letter, the Royal Commission of Inquiry set up to investigate the "black eye" incident was about to start on Feb 22, 1999,

Abu Talib was the conducting officer and former Chief Judge of Malaya, the late Anuar Zainal Abidin, was to head the bench.

Mat Zain was appointed by the commissioners to assist Abu Talib in the proceedings because he was the investigating officer in the case.

Mat Zain alleged the letter showed how Apandi was wrong in giving the impression that AGs in the past never sought the opinion or instructions of sitting prime ministers.

Apandi is also under fire after he advised the PM not to explain the RM2.6 billion to Parliament last week.

PKR’s Padang Serai MP N Surendran, in a statement today, said Apandi's advice to Najib could be in conflict with his duty to institute prosecutions, since the Umno president is currently being investigated.

"By virtue of Article 145(3) of the Federal Constitution, the AG also has the power to institute prosecution for any offence.

"Since the premier is himself the subject of investigation in this matter, the AG would be in conflict with his duty to institute prosecutions, should he at the same time advise the PM on any aspect whatsoever of the monies in his account," he said.

Surendran said this after Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Azalina Othman Said said Najib abstained from replying after the AG advised that this could be sub judice .

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