Xavier Justo speaks at the 10th International Conference for Financial Crime and Terrorism Financing in Kuala Lumpur October 31, 2018. — Picture by Firdaus Latif

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 31 — Datuk Seri Amar Singh Ishar Singh today denied asking former PetroSaudi executive Xavier Justo to publicly admit that Datuk Seri Najib Razak was “the best prime minister” as part of his forced confession.

Amar rubbished Justo’s claim, saying that it was an “irrelevant” question to ask.

The Federal Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) director commissioner said he did lead a police team to record Justo’s statement, but told Malay Mail that the police did not ask pose such a question to Justo.

“Clearly, the question of who being the best prime minister is not relevant to the case being investigated.

“Thus, we would definitely not ask such an irreverent question,” he said.

Amar said he did lead a team of investigators in December 2015 to record a statement from Justo at a Bangkok prison.

He said the case was in relation to information revealed by Justo that was published in Sarawak Report.

“This was in relation to the emails purportedly leaked by Justo on 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB),” he said.

Earlier today, Justo said the forced admission was part of several instructions imposed as a condition for his release, which he confessed to under the assumption that it would secure his release.

“The Malaysian delegation was of three Malaysian policemen and they told me to say I was a bad man, I liked money and Tarek and Petrosaudi were nice,” he told a conference on financial crime here.

“And also I had to say Najib was the best PM ever... Of course, I don’t know if he was,” he earlier said.

Justo said Amar was among the delegation of police personnel that met him.