TUN Dr Mahathir Mohamed has defended his decision to dismiss Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali as secretary-general, saying that the recent court testimonies by former Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) governor Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz that her report of wrongdoing by top 1MDB officials had been classified as no further action (NFA) by Apandi was proof of “dereliction of duty” on Apandi’s part.
Mahathir said yet Apandi, whose contract he had terminated in 2018 when he was prime minister, had sued him for wrongful dismissal although he was prepared to explain his decision in court.
“Another example of Apandi’s wrongful decision was to dismiss all the cases against Datuk Seri Najib Razak [but when] another attorney-general had brought Najib’s cases to court, three courts and nine judges had found Najib guilty,” the former prime minister said in a statement today (Aug 22).
“Clearly Apandi as attorney-general did not study the case thoroughly before declaring that Najib had no case to answer. This again shows a dereliction of duty on the part of Apandi.”
Recall that on Oct 13, 2020 Apandi had filed a lawsuit against Mahathir and the government, seeking a declaration that his termination as attorney-general by the former prime minister was unlawful.
In the lawsuit, Apandi had also sought for general damages, exemplary or punitive damages, as well as RM2,233,599.36 in special damages.
On April 13, 2022 the government had reached an amicable out-of-court settlement with Apandi “without admission of liability” and had awarded Apandi an undisclosed sum to drop the lawsuit.
“This means that the government agreed that Apandi was wrongfully dismissed. I was not party to the settlement, and I did not agree that I had wrongfully dismissed Apandi,” Mahathir stressed.
“But now, the report that he had failed to take action on the BNM report [about the wrongdoings of the three top officials] proves that [Apandi] was not doing his duty as the attorney-general, and this further justifies his dismissal.
“That such an attorney-general should be compensated with unknown sums of money do not reflect well on the rule of law in this country.”
On Aug 15, Zeti gave the names of three 1MDB officials that the central bank had recommended in 2015 to be charged but confirmed that the attorney-general did not charge them.
Zeti, 76, said this while testifying as the 46th prosecution witness in former prime minister Najib’s trial over RM2.28 bil of 1MDB funds.
Asked by Najib’s lead defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah who were the individuals in 1MDB that BNM had recommended to be charged, Zeti named them as “Shahrol the CEO, Casey Tang, and Nik Faisal. These are the three.”
She was referring to 1MDB’s former CEO Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, 1MDB’s former executive director for business development Casey Tang Keng Chee, and 1MDB’s former chief investment officer Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil. – Aug 22, 2023
Main pic credit: Utusan Malaysia
