Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir bans predecessor Najib Razak from leaving country over involvment in 1MDB scandal
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir bans predecessor Najib Razak from leaving country over involvment in 1MDB scandal
A day after Mahathir Mohamad was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Malaysia, he barred his predecessor Najib Razak and his wife from leaving the country for his involvement in the multi-billion-dollar graft scandal.
After taking the oath on Friday, he said that he would reopen the long pending case of 1Malaysian Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.
This orders followed after the former Prime Minister shared a post on social media that his wife and he would be going on a week-long holiday overseas post his tragic defeat in general elections. Immigration Department announced on its Facebook page, "The Malaysian Immigration Department would like to confirm that Najib Razak and Rosmah Mansor have just been blacklisted from leaving the country.”
A few minutes later Najib posted on Twitter that he respects the direction by the Immigration Department and would remain in the country and has cancelled his overseas trip.
According to reports, the newly-elected PM Mahathir plans to reopen investigations into the 2015 graft scandal involving former PM Najib.
Reports also stated that Mahathir is going to appoint a finance ministry adviser to "restart the 1MDB probe and bring back the money”.
As soon as the former PM shared the weekend getaway news, journalists gathered near Kuala Lumpur from where Najib and his wife were supposed to leave for Jakarta.