*KUALA LUMPUR: Rosmah Mansor, the flamboyant wife of Malaysia’s formerprime minister, was arrested on Wednesday by the country’s anti-graftagency over a multi-billion-dollar scandal that helped to bring down thelast government.*
Investigations into the alleged looting of state fund 1MDB by an audaciousinternational fraud ring have already seen her husband Najib Razak hit withmore than two dozen charges including corruption and money laundering.
He is out on bail following his spectacular fall from power in Mayelections, at the hands of a reformist alliance headed by Mahathir Mohamad.
“Rosmah has been arrested,” her lawyer K. Kumaraendran said after she wasquestioned for hours at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) onWednesday.
The MACC in a statement said it arrested Rosmah, 66, in relation to moneylaundering investigations after getting approval from state prosecutors.
“Following this, Rosmah will face a number of charges,” it said, adding shewill be brought to court early on Thursday to be charged.
An MACC official said Rosmah could face up to 15 years in jail if convictedon each charge.
She is expected to spend the night at the MACC headquarters located in theadministrative capital Putrajaya outside Kuala Lumpur.
Rosmah, widely reviled in Malaysia due to her profligate spending andimperious manner while her husband was in power, arrived at the MACCheadquarters in a two-car convoy late Wednesday morning.
At the same time, her husband was also being questioned by police in aseparate location in relation to the scandal.
Najib, 65, has denied any wrongdoing despite revelations that hundreds ofmillions of dollars ended up in his personal bank accounts.Cash, jewellery and handbags
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Rosmah, wearing a light green dress with matching headscarf, was met by herlawyers and escorted by anti-corruption officers into the agency’s building.
She smiled as she walked past journalists but did not make any comment.
In Rosmah’s last appearance a week ago, she was questioned for 13 hours.
Wednesday was the third occasion on which Rosmah had been questioned, butthe first time she had been arrested, since her husband’s coalition wasdramatically ousted from office after six decades in power.
A central issue in the campaign was the allegation that Najib, his familyand his cronies looted billions of dollars from 1MDB in a fraud ring thatstretched from Singapore to Switzerland.
Rosmah’s love of costly overseas shopping trips, designer handbags andjewellery made her a lightning rod for public anger, and fuelled suspicionsthat she benefited from the plundering of 1MDB.
After the election loss, a stash of cash, jewellery and hundreds ofdesigner handbags worth as much as $273 million was seized from propertieslinked to the couple in raids around Kuala Lumpur.
Rosmah is often compared to Imelda Marcos, who left behind more than athousand pairs of shoes after her husband, Philippine President FerdinandMarcos, was ousted in a popular uprising in 1986.
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, 93, who came back from retirement tochallenge Najib, has launched a crackdown against corruption involvingpeople in the previous government. – APP/AFP
