Dr Mahathir Mohamad has reiterated his call for the US Department of Justice to name the "Malaysian Official 1" mentioned in its court filings regarding the alleged abuse of 1MDB funds.

The former premier said if the superpower truly believed in the eradication of corruption and money laundering which involved the US, they should not be shy about naming names and letting due process take place.

“Stealing money is a crime. Merely seizing the stolen money does not nullify the crime. The only logical sequence to the seizure of stolen money is the criminal charge against the thieves.

“How is the DOJ going to charge Malaysian Official 1 without naming him?” he asked.

Without mincing words as always, Mahathir said foreign intervention was required to bring about justice when the “thief is in charge of the police and the prosecuting agency” at home.

Stating that Malaysians wanted to regain their good name, he said: “They don’t want to be led by a leader suspected of kleptocracy, of stealing billions of government money.”

“They cannot do anything themselves because Malaysian Official 1 controls the attorney-general and the police – the enforcement agencies.

“They cannot remove him through a vote of no-confidence as he controls a majority of the members of Parliament through illegal measures,” he added in a blog post.

Like it or not, Mahathir said, the situation forced Malaysians to rely on actions by foreign countries.

In the DOJ's filings last Wednesday, Malaysian Official 1 is described as a high-ranking public official who hold positions of authority in 1MDB, and is a relative to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's stepson Riza Aziz.

The US authorities claimed that US$731 million of funds siphoned from 1MDB had been deposited into Malaysian Official 1's account.

Mahathir had previously said that he had no doubt that the unnamed official was Najib.

As such, the nonagenarian was confused as to why his name was not revealed.

"I don’t know why the US officials writing the report are being coy about giving the real name of Malaysian Official 1 when they are happy to write down the names of the other culprits; namely Riza Aziz, Jho Low and Khadim Abdullah.

"If it is because this is not at the stage of making criminal charges, then no names should be named.

"Now, Najib and his goons are saying that Najib is not involved as his name is not mentioned," Mahathir said.

Najib has consistently denied misusing public funds, or any wrongdoing in the 1MDB scandal.

The prime minister has dismissed such claims as a plot to topple him.