Former attorney-general Apandi Ali, who cleared Najib Abdul Razak of any wrongdoing in the 1MDB scandal back in 2016, has responded to yesterday's High Court verdict in a cryptic message.
When contacted by Malaysiakini on the former prime minister being found guilty on all 25 corruption-related charges, he said:
"Sometimes one has to pay for a lapse of intelligence."
Apandi, however, declined to elaborate when asked what he meant with the single-line comment.
Yesterday, presiding judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah delivered the Kuala Lumpur court's ruling, where it found Najib guilty on all four counts of abuse of power and all 21 money laundering charges linked to the 1MDB scandal.
The former Umno president was handed 15 years’ imprisonment and ordered to pay a total fine of RM11.38 billion for the four abuse of power offences.
At the height of authorities' investigations into the 1MDB and SRC International scandals in 2015, Najib had dispensed a special task force headed by then attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail.
Gani was then replaced by Apandi, who later held a press conference on Jan 26, 2016 clearing the then prime minister from any wrongdoing.
According to Apandi, no charges would be brought against Najib based on the investigations carried out by MACC.
"Based on the facts and evidence as a whole, I, as the public prosecutor, am satisfied that no criminal offence has been committed by the prime minister in relation to the three investigation papers.
"I will return the relevant investigation papers to MACC today, with the instruction to close the three investigation papers," he reportedly told a press conference in Putrajaya. - Mkini
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