24 February 2016•Update: 25 February 2016
By P Prem Kumar
KUALA LUMPUR
An independent review panel recommended the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Wednesday to re-launch its investigation into an alleged $681 million political donation found in the premier’s accounts after the attorney general cleared him of wrongdoing.
Last month, the country’s top prosecutor had ruled out any wrongdoings by Najib Razak in receiving or spending the alleged donation from Saudi royals during the May 2013 general election due to “insufficient evidence” to implicate the premier.
Apandi Ali had also ordered the MACC to close the investigation papers on Razak.
The MACC then presented the decision to the operations review panel – tasked with checking the credibility of the agency’s procedures and deciding on whether to resubmit them to the Attorney General (AG) Chamber – which ordered Wednesday that the case be further investigated for clarity.
In a statement, the MACC said the panel had recommended that it resubmit its probe papers on SRC International, a former subsidiary of debt-ridden state investment firm 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) to the AG for review.
The panel said that since the probe was “incomplete”, the MACC should continue its investigation and “seek the attorney-general’s assistance to issue Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA), in order for MACC to obtain evidence and documents from financial institutions based overseas as part of its investigation into the case.”
The MACC had earlier opened three investigations into Razak over the funds, and two on the finance ministry's SRC International after international media released reports in July quoting documents from a probe into 1MDB – Razak's brainchild – that claimed that $700 million (or 2.67 billion Ringgit) from 1MDB ended up in Razak's accounts.
The premier had originally responded to the allegations by insisting that he had not swindled funds for personal gain, whether it be from 1MDB, SRC International or other entities.
In August, the AG Chambers revealed that the funds were not from 1MBD, but political donations to the Razak-led United Malays National Organization (UMNO) for the party to remain in power during the 13th General Election.
While politicians within UMNO had proudly declared that the funds came from "Middle East Royals" who wanted the party to retain power, Razak remained silent on the matter, insisting that political donations are confidential and donors would only be revealed if opposition parties agreed to follow suit.
