'PM has no business accepting Najib's apology'

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim welcoming Najib Abdul Razak’s apology over the 1MDB scandal has drawn flak from several quarters.

Lawyer Latheefa Koya slammed Anwar, saying he has no authority to accept such an apology.

“(It is) Not his job. Since Najib maintains innocence, Anwar’s acceptance condones the crime.

“It emboldens the corrupt, makes a mockery of the courts, undermines the MACC,” the former MACC chief said in a social media post.

Latheefa also questioned whether this was the prelude to releasing Najib on house arrest.

In another reaction, former Sepang MP Mohamed Hanipa Maidin said Anwar’s welcoming of Najib’s apology doesn’t represent everyone.

The former deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department from Amanah said in a strongly worded Facebook post: “PMX has welcomed his predecessor Najib’s apology over the 1MDB scandal. With due respect, I don’t think you represent all of us!!!”

Maintaining innocence

Anwar had said “I welcome it” when quizzed on Najib’s apology after Friday prayers today in Putrajaya.

Yesterday, Najib, in a statement read out by his son Nizar at the Kuala Lumpur High Court, apologised that the 1MDB scandal happened during his watch but maintained his innocence.

“It pains me every day to know that the 1MDB debacle happened under my watch as finance minister and prime minister.

“For that, I would like to apologise unreservedly to the nation,” he said.

‘I was duped’

The former premier cited an article by The Edge published earlier this month, which showed how fugitive financier Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) and Petrosaudi executives Patrick Mahoney and Tarek Obaid colluded to swindle 1MDB funds.

Najib, who is serving a six-year prison sentence and is embroiled in other legal proceedings related to 1MDB, claimed that the article showed he was duped.

“The Edge reached a conclusion in their article that Petrosaudi and Jho Low collaborated to deceive me, that I was not aware that Petrosaudi was siphoning 1MDB funds, and that I did not knowingly receive any money from the funds sent by 1MDB to Petrosaudi.

“As hard as it is for some people to fathom, I was advised and honestly believe at the time that the funds I received were political donations from Saudi Arabia,” he said.

However, The Edge’s article did not fully exonerate him.

The article concluded that Najib was unaware of the theft of 1MDB funds, but only up to 2010 at least, and regarding the theft of US$1.5 billion from bonds raised in 2009.

The article did not conclude whether or not Najib remained in the dark later on.

Speculation has also been rife that the government’s decision to draft a house arrest bill is related to Najib, whose prison sentence is over an SRC International case.

However, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil has denied speculations, emphasising the house arrest bill has nothing to do with any individual.

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