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Dr M doubtful AG will work with Swiss counterpart
Published:  Feb 3, 2016 1:17 PM
Updated: 8:07 AM

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad is doubtful that attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali will meaningfully cooperate with the Swiss attorney-general’s office in its investigation into 1MDB.

Mahathir said this was because Apandi in his current post was at the behest of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, whom he recently cleared of any wrongdoing in two other cases.

“The current AG, with whom the Swiss AG seeks cooperation with, was appointed by the PM through false representation made to the king. This means the AG owes his position to the PM.

“Can he be expected to charge the person to whom he owes his position? Knowing his predecessor was dismissed for trying to do the same, the new AG is not likely to prefer a charge against the PM,” Mahathir alleged on his blog today.

Apandi ( photo ) recently cleared Najib of criminal wrongdoing in relation to MACC investigations into the RM2.6 billion donation and the RM42 million of funds originating from former 1MDB subsidiary, SRC international into his personal accounts.

1MDB is also Najib’s brainchild, with the PM and finance minister acting as chairperson of the state investment fund's board of advisers.

Mahathir was commenting on the Swiss AG office's request to Malaysian authorities for mutual assistance in an ongoing investigation.

The Swiss authorities are looking into former officials of the state-owned fund 1MDB and "persons unknown", on suspicion of bribery of foreign public officials, misconduct in public office, money-laundering and criminal mismanagement, under the Swiss criminal code.

"This request for mutual assistance now puts the agreement in principle between Malaysia and Switzerland into concrete forms," noted Mahathir.

Less than impressed

The ex-PM was less than impressed by Apandi's immediate response to the Swiss, that his office and the relevant Malaysian authorities are keen to establish all the facts about 1MDB that have led to recent allegations against the company.

"However in stating the number of authorities in the ongoing investigations he mentioned only three, namely the Public Accounts Committee, the Royal Malaysian Police and the Auditor-General’s Department. No mention is made of the central bank (Bank Negara) which actually submitted a report," Mahathir said.

He pointed out that the AG had dismissed the Bank Negara report without explanation and had rejected a subsequent appeal by the national bank, and similarly dismissed the MACC investigation papers and asked the anti-graft body to stop its investigation.

"The contents of these reports are the results of serious investigations by reputable authorities. Will the AG in response to this request by the Swiss AG submit the reports for the latter’s examination and assessment?

"Or will the AG simply dismiss these reports as of no relevance in the Swiss AG’s investigation, perusal and assessment of the loss of US$4 billion by 1MDB?" asked the former premier.

Mahathir also noted that the AG had also warned that “any attempt by media organisations to conflate the two sets of investigation is irresponsible and prejudicial".

"Clearly, the AG does not want the Swiss AG to know whether the money in the prime minister’s personal accounts comes from 1MDB or not," he claimed.

Apandi was appointed AG by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong last year on the advice of the prime minister, after Abdul Gani Patail’s contract was suddenly terminated for 'health reasons'.

Critics like Mahathir view his appointment as an attempt to whitewash several investigations on the most powerful man in Malaysia.

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