KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 — The federal police have reportedly started an investigation paper into former Attorney-General (AG) Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali, over alleged abuse of power during his time, while handling investigations into the now defunct 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
Free Malaysia Today quoted Selangor deputy police chief Datuk Sasikala Devi Subramaniam saying that Bukit Aman’s classified investigation unit (D5) is investigating the matter.
"Both reports in Selangor were referred to the Kuala Lumpur police before being taken over by Bukit Aman D5,” she reportedly said.
The investigation came on the heels of Klang MP Charles Santiago’s police report against Apandi in Klang yesterday, following a High Court decision on the matter and another police report lodged by Parti Pejuang Tanah Air.
Mohamed Apandi had in July 2019, sued DAP MP Lim Kit Siang for defamation for having publicly urged him to "explain why he aided and abetted in the 1MDB scandal”.
On May 6, 2019, Lim had published an article titled "Dangerous Fallacy to think Malaysia’s on the road to integrity” on his own blog, which contained a line saying Apandi "should explain why” he had allegedly "aided and abetted in the 1MDB scandal”.
But the High Court on May 23 this year dismissed Apandi’s defamation lawsuit, after having found that the evidence produced in court - including Apandi’s own testimony - showed Lim as having successfully proven his defences.
On July 21, High Court judge Datuk Azimah Omar’s 100-page written judgment was made available publicly, where the judge gave a hard-hitting and took a no-nonsense approach in scrutinising all the evidence available, especially on why Apandi had not asked for continued investigations on 1MDB or SRC.
The judge stressed that Apandi’s defamation lawsuit is mainly related to the "globally infamous” 1MDB scandal (which also includes the SRC International Sdn Bhd case), which she said is still plaguing Malaysia to this very day and also noted that history can only regard the scandal as the "greatest and vile corruption and thievery of the modern times”.