Dr Mahathir Mohamad said it is not fair that while Najib Abdul Razak languishes in prison, those who “aided and conspired” with him in the 1MDB scandal remain free and are compensated.
The former premier said he disagreed with the government’s decision in 2022 to reach an amicable settlement with former attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali, who filed a lawsuit seeking over RM2.23 million in compensation after being terminated from that post in June 2018.
The settlement was reached when Ismail Sabri Yaakob was the prime minister.
Mahathir raised this issue in his latest blog post when commenting on the Federal Court’s decision on May 14 to reject Apandi's application to challenge the Court of Appeal’s dismissal of his RM10 million defamation suit against DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang.
“I read the reasons for the Federal Court rejecting his bid. This means it is the end of the road for Apandi to continue his defamation suit.
“Beginning with the High Court to the Federal Court, all the judges agreed that Apandi’s biggest failure was discharging his duties as the attorney-general,” he added.
Noting the remarks of the various judges regarding Apandi’s conduct, Mahathir said his administration was correct in terminating his services in 2018.
“Apandi then sued the government and named me as a defendant. He alleged that I had removed him unlawfully and accused me of seeing him in a negative light.
“Because of this, I disagree with the government’s decision to settle the case and I was told that it involved a hefty compensation.
“It is not fair that only Najib is punished when Apandi, whom the judges mentioned had openly ‘aided and conspired’ with Najib is free and receives compensation from the government,” he added.
Appointment and termination
Apandi was terminated a month after Pakatan Harapan became the government and Mahathir was sworn in as prime minister for the second time.
Najib appointed Apandi in 2015 after dismissing Abdul Gani Patail as the attorney-general during the height of the 1MDB scandal.
Last year, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman Said disclosed that the terms of the settlement with Apandi are classified as confidential under the Official Secrets Act.
During his tenure, Apandi had, among others, claimed that the son of a late Saudi king had donated RM2.6 billion to Najib but declined to provide details about his identity.
"We know his (the donor) name. He is not the late Saudi King but the son of the king. He is still alive," he said.
As for his defamation suit against Lim, Apandi had hauled the latter to court over a 2019 article in Malaysiakini titled, “Dangerous fallacy to think Malaysia’s on the road to integrity”.
The former attorney-general claimed that the article implied, among others, that he was involved in the 1MDB scandal, was a person with no morals and integrity, was unethical, and had abused his power when he was attorney-general. - Mkini
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