There is no more reason for the government to keep the 1MDB audit report secret as it has already been leaked and made public by the Sarawak Report, said human rights group Hakam.
The group, headed by former Bar Council president Ambiga Sreenevasan, said if the report was erroneous, then auditor-general Ambrin Buang would have said so.
“Once a purported ‘official secret’ is in the public domain, it is no longer a secret and ought to be declassified,” it said in a statement today,
It cited arguments by British appellate court judges in the 1980s, including a judgement by Lord Bridge of Harwich, who said “once information is freely available to the general public, it is nonsensical to talk about preventing its ‘disclosure’.”
The 1MDB audit report is currently classified under the Official Secrets Act. Read more