Now that Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has been officially cleared of graft accusations, his most prolific critic Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad has fired new salvos of condemnation in a blogpost.
For months, Najib fended off accusations that the huge payment made into his personal bank accounts in 2013 was siphoned off from a now-struggling state-owned company that he had launched.
Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali said a review of evidence compiled by the country’s anti-graft agency showed that the money was a “personal donation from the Saudi royal family”, but gave no further details. Najib was also noted to have returned the RM2.03 billion back to the Saudi Royal family.
Of course, Dr. Mahathir — the former Malaysian Prime Minister — is not too happy. Dr. Mahathir was the one who lead the call out for Najib to resign, accusing him of corruption way before the 1MDB scandal came to light.
Now that the Malaysian prime minister is cleared of any wrongdoing, Dr. Mahathir said that he had always expected the outcome. His blogpost also dragged Singapore into his personal campaign against Najib, asking if Singapore could explain how the money was given back to the Saudis.
“Then (the Attorney-General) goes on to say that the balance of US$620 million or RM2.03 billion has been returned to the Saudis. How and when was this done?” he wrote.
“We are told the balance is frozen by Singapore. Can Singapore explain the unfreezing and the delivery back to the Saudis? Or does Singapore also believe in the free gift story, the letter and the Saudi admission?”
Last year, the Singapore police confirmed that they had frozen two bank accounts as part of an investigation into possible money-laundering offences related to troubled Malaysian state investment firm 1MDB.
“Singapore is a financial centre. Can it be so gullible?” Dr. Mahathir challenged.
With text by AFP
