KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian police will soon call up several personalities for questioning following the press conference yesterday by Thai authorities in regards to investigations into Xavier Andre Justo.
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said today this includes the opposition leader with whom Justo had met.
"What was revealed by Thai police yesterday is viewed seriously and we have begun our own investigations, with a police report lodged based on the press conference (in Bangkok).
"We will soon call these people up, all of them," he said at the police force's open house at federal police headquarters in Bukit Aman.
Khalid said police had identified those Justo had met with and would investigate them all.
He said if need be, they would be arrested.
Khalid said Malaysian police would continue liaising with their Thai counterparts as investigations in Bangkok were still ongoing.
"We have spoken to them and we will continue speaking to them... investigations there are not over and as they get more information, we will liaise with them," he said, adding that Malaysian investigations would continue in the meantime.
Yesterday, Thai police confirmed that Swiss citizen Justo met with a "very important person from a Malaysian opposition party" before selling classified information belonging to Saudi oil company PetroSaudi International.
Royal Thai Police spokesman Lt Gen Prawut Thavornsiri had told the New Straits Times that Justo, a former PetroSaudi director, admitted to meeting the opposition leader at a hotel in Singapore.
He however declined to name the individual. Under Thai law, a person cannot be named prior to a warrant of arrest.
However, he had said Justo met the opposition leader to negotiate a selling price for petroSaudi documents in the former's possession.
He had also said Justo admitted that he met with a media tycoon at the same location in Singapore. He declined to name the media tycoon.
“He told us the name of every person he met. We confiscated his personal computer and cellphone and all the relevant details were found on those devices."
“Most of the information was gathered from Justo’s email correspondence and WhatsApp chat records,” Prawut had said.
He had said Justo had also admitted to blackmailing his former employer, PetroSaudi International, and will be charged under Thai law for extortion and blackmail.
However, Prawut had said Justo denied having tampered with documents that were eventually sold to a certain news outlet in Europe.
Thai police believe, however, that, based on information given by Justo, the emails were tampered with before it was published.
“I do not know who tampered with the documents. It was done after the transaction was made,” he had said. Justo has been under Thai police custody since his arrest late last month after he allegedly stole thousands of emails and documents from Petro Saudi, and tried to blackmail his former employer.
He moved to Thailand after he was terminated from the company. Thai police are investigating how, after leaving the company, Justo issued a series of blackmail demands for 2.5 million Swiss francs (approximately RM9.9 million).
PetroSaudi did not meet Justo’s demand. Then in February this year, doctored and tampered versions of the emails suddenly started to appear on Sarawak Report, sparking a political row implicating 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) and Malaysian leaders.