Former Sabah chief minister Tan Sri Musa Aman arrives at the Kuala Lumpur Court Complex November 5, 2018. — Picture by Firdaus Latif

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 9 — The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) clarified today that it was the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) that had decided not to continue pressing charges against the former Sabah chief minister Tan Sri Musa Aman in 2012.

The graftbusters said it had already conducted its investigations against Musa, and had submitted the investigation paper on the accused to the AGC on July 2012 for further action.

“However, the then-AGC decided not to pursue any charges as they were of the view that the investigation was related to political donation.

“At that particular time, it was the policy of the AGC not charging any cases related to political donation,” the commission said in a statement.

Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail was the attorney-general then, until he was replaced by Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali in 2015.

Tommy Thomas was appointed the new attorney-general in June this year after Pakatan Harapan took over Putrajaya.

MACC reiterated that it has reviewed the investigation paper against Musa few months ago, after receiving new information regarding to the case.

“MACC had resubmitted the Investigation Paper to the AGC to be reviewed. The Attorney-General then decided to charge Tan Sri Musa with 35 corruption charges under Section 11(a) of the Anti-Corruption Act 1997.”

Yesterday, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad urged MACC to clarify why it did not charge the former Sabah chief minister previously.

Musa, who is Sungai Sibuga assemblyman, was charged on November 5 with 35 counts of graft for receiving a total of US$63.3 million (RM263 million) in exchange for logging contracts that were issued between 2004 and 2008.