PARTI Warisan president Shafie Apdal has been remanded for four days to facilitate the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s probe into misappropriation of funds that allegedly occurred during the time he was the rural and regional development minister.

Shafie had arrived at the Kota Kinabalu courthouse for the remand hearing at 2.20pm in an ambulance. He was escorted by police to the court from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital II, where he was admitted last night for high blood pressure.

Magistrate Cindy Mc Jude Balitus, who granted the four-day remand order, also ordered that Shafie be returned to the hospital for further treatment.

Shafie’s blood pressure reading last night after hours of questioning had caused the doctors to warn of a possible heart attack.

Shafie turns 60 today.

Warisan division secretary Amarjit Singh, 47, who was arrested yesterday, was today remanded for six days to facilitate the same investigation.

Sources yesterday said MACC investigators were questioning Shafie on at least 70 files.

The anti-graft agency is investigating some 350 projects to supply water and electricity as well as built roads in the rural parts of the state. The Rural and Regional Development Ministry had awarded the contracts for the projects to about 60 companies between 2009 and 2015, when Shafie was at the helm.

About 45 people has been questioned in the course of the MACC nvestigation. 

Not counting Shafie and Amarjit, those detained so far are Warisan vice-president Peter Anthony; Warisan Youth leader Azis Jamman; Tenom Umno Youth chief Jamawi Jaafar; Tawau Umno Youth chief Ariffin Kassim; a senior officer from the ministry; a 54-year-old businessman; Shafie’s two younger brothers – Hamid and Yusof; and Hamid’s 33-year-old businessman son-in-law Manzur Hussein Awal Khan. 

In an earlier interview with The Malaysian Insight, Shafie said he expected to be called in by MACC over the ongoing probe.

He said he had expected there would be efforts to derail him from his political goals the moment he formed Warisan, describing the MACC probe as “selective prosecution” and politically motivated.

He was particularly upset over the arrest of his two younger brothers and others close to him. – October 20, 2017.