Some 20 Malaysian students in Australia held a ‘Tangkap MO1' protest ahead of the gathering slated to be held in Kuala Lumpur tomorrow.

The students gathered at the Australian National University in Canberra to demand the arrest of the Malaysian Official 1 (MO1), who was mentioned 36 times in the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) court filings related to the alleged abuse of 1MDB funds.

“The gathering was organised by the Malaysian Progressives in Australia (MPOZ) in solidarity with the ‘Tangkap MO1’ rally in Kuala Lumpur,” said MPOZ in a statement.

Most of the participants were from cities around Australia such as Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, it added.

Opposition parliamentarians Fuziah Salleh, Zairil Khir Johari, Alice Lau as well as Pakatan Harapan executive secretary Saifuddin Abdullah, who were at the university for the Malaysia Update 2016 conference, also participated in the protest.

The ‘TangkapMO1' rally is scheduled to be held at the Dataran Merdeka tomorrow.

The rally’s organiser had confirmed that the gathering would go on as planned despite inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar saying that police will not allow the rally to be held in Dataran Merdeka as the organiser did not get permission from Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL).

The DOJ claimed US$731 million made its way into the accounts of MO1, an unnamed civil servant who is related to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s stepson Riza Aziz.

Riza and a businessman Jho Low, who is said to be close to the prime minister’s family, were named in the court filings.

Critics claimed that MO1 is none other than Najib himself.

However, Najib has denied allegations of misusing public funds, saying such accusations were part of a plot to topple him.

Attorney-general Mohamad Apandi Ali also cleared the prime minister of any wrongdoing.