Malaysian PM cleared in graft case

Saudi royals provided ‘donation’

The Saudi royal family was the source of a $681 million “donation” that has engulfed Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in scandal, his attorney-general said on Tuesday, clearing the Premier of graft allegations.

Mohamed Apandi Ali said a review of evidence compiled by the country’s anti-graft agency showed that the money received in 2013 was a “personal donation from the Saudi royal family”, giving no further information on the source.

He said $620 million was returned to the Saudis a few months later but did not say why.

Mr Najib, 62, has for months denied accusations that the huge payments into his own bank accounts — just before a hotly contested 2013 general election — were syphoned from a now-struggling state-owned company he launched.

Until now, however, the precise origin of the funds has not been specified, other than vague claims by Mr Najib’s government that it came from unnamed West Asian donors. The money’s purpose has never been revealed.

“No criminal offence has been committed by (the Prime Minster)”, Mr Apandi, who was installed by Mr Najib shortly after the scandal broke in 2015, said in a statement.

He said he would instruct authorities to close this and related cases. The fund transfers were revealed in July 2015 just as Mr Najib was battling allegations that hundreds of millions of dollars were missing from deals involving the state-owned company, 1Malaysia Development Berhad.

Mr Najib said the attorney-general’s finding “confirmed what I have maintained all along, that no crime was committed”.

“This issue has been an unnecessary distraction for the country,” he said in a statement, adding it was time for Malaysia to “unite and move on”.

But Opposition figures swiftly denounced the announcement, calling it part of a broader cover-up.

“This will cause people to ask whether the AG carried out his duty professionally, freely and fairly,” Opposition leader Wan Azizah Wan Ismail told reporters, according to the Malaysian Insider news site.