Najib says he’s ‘lucky’ to avoid sodomy rap as Malaysia opens fresh probes into 1MDB

Embattled former PM is facing three separate investigations – from Malaysia’s parliament, anti-corruption authority, and police

Najib has made sarcastic Facebook post referencing PM-in-waiting Anwar Ibrahim’s multiple sodomy charges

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Malaysia’s former prime minister Najib Razak is facing a painful crawl towards his day in court as authorities continue to open fresh probes to find out the full extent of his involvement in the 1MDB case. Photo: AFP

Published: 6:33pm, 26 Nov 2018Updated: 9:08pm, 26 Nov 2018

Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak’s trial for his alleged links to the 1MDB financial scandal is just over two months away, but he is facing a painful crawl towards his day in court as authorities continue to open fresh probes to find out the full extent of his involvement in the case.

On Monday, the embattled leader was furiously pushing back against newly opened investigations into claims he had directed the tampering of an audit report into 1MDB – the state fund he founded from which prosecutors say some US$4.5 billion was looted during his nine-year tenure.

The matter is being independently investigated by a select committee in the parliament controlled by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), while the country’s police on Monday also started a separate probe.

The MACC said in a statement that it would parse the differences between two versions of the audit report: the one submitted to Najib, and another one with amendments.

The decision to probe the matter came after auditor general Madinah Mohamad revealed on Saturday that there had been major discrepancies between the two versions, including the deletion of sections that mentioned the presence of financier Low Taek Jho – also known as Jho Low – at key 1MDB meetings.