Thai, Malaysian Police Will Discuss Justo Case Next Week - Deputy Home Minister

LUNDU (Sarawak, Malaysia), July 6 (Bernama) -- Thailand's Deputy Inspector-General of Police will meet his counterpart in Kuala Lumpur next week regarding the Xavier Justo case, said Deputy Home Minister Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar. "I was informed by Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar that Thailand's Deputy Inspector-General of Police will come to Malaysia to meet his counterpart to discuss permission to interrogate Gusto, who is being held in that country," said Wan Junaidi. He told reporters this after delivering donations to disabled people, senior citizens, mosques, surau (prayers houses) and breaking fast at the Darul Taqwa Mosque here, Saturday. According to Wan Junaidi, Malaysian authorities cannot get involved in Gusto's case until they got permission from the Thai authorities to do so. "We must look this case in terms of jurisdiction, as even though this case involves a company in Malaysia (1MDB), Justo was arrested and alleged to have committed crimes in Thailand. However, he said, if Thailand needed any kind of help from Malaysia, the police and the ministry were ready to co-operate at any time. Junaidi added that he believed that Thailand would not allow Justo to be brought to Malaysia to face the law in this country until his case is finished in Thailand. On June 24, Thai police were reported to have arrested the Swiss national for attempting to blackmail PSI, an international company based in Saudi Arabia which had drawn attention in Malaysia as it had established ties with 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). Following the attempted blackmail, several e-mails and documents were published by the Sarawak Report, a politically-motivated blog, to the extent of creating various allegations against 1MDB. Meanwhile, Wan Junaidi said less than 50 percent of orphans and disabled persons have registered with the Welfare Department (JKM). He said there were still orphans and disabled persons were hidden by their families at home and have not been registered with the JKM. He called for their parents or guardians to register with the JKM their children in order to get finance, training and education assistance provided by the government. -- BERNAMA