KUALA LUMPUR: The United States Department of Justice (DoJ) did not mention Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in its recent civil lawsuit announced yesterday, blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin said.
In a posting today, Raja Petra said Najib was not under investigation by the department.
“And in the documents that the DoJ published there is no mention of Najib. In fact, there is even no mention of the famous ‘MO1’ (Malaysian Official 1).”
Raja Petra said the allegation made against 1Malaysia Development Bhd showed that there was no criminal investigation against Najib, but rather a civil action involving seizure of assets which could only take place if a crime was proven in court.
He also claimed that the timing of the allegation was carefully planned for Malaysians “to have something to gossip about over the long weekend of Hari Raya Aidilfitri”.
Raja Petra alleged former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had asked two people to draft a Verified Complaint for Forfeiture, before it was handed down to the Acting US Attorney of the Central District of California, Sandra Brown.
“(Dr) Mahathir thinks that Najib might dissolve Parliament soon after Hari Raya, so that the general election can be held around August. Hence the timing of the DoJ announcement is perfect.
“And if the general election is not held in August after all, and is instead held next year, Mahathir can ask the DoJ to come out with a third announcement.
“That was what yesterday’s announcement by the DoJ was all about. And now Mahathir is going to allow this to simmer slowly and come to a boil during Hari Raya, when Malaysians meet to eat and gossip,” Raja Petra claimed.
The article also suggested that Dr Mahathir had allegedly used PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s connections in the US to bring down Najib when the DoJ made its first allegations against 1MDB last year.
“So Mahathir used Anwar’s people, such as Cynthia Gabriel, to talk to the Americans. Mahathir then sent (lawyer) Mathias Chang, (Datuk Seri) Khairuddin Abu Hassan, (Tan Sri) Zeti Akhtar Aziz, (Tan Sri) Abu Kassim Mohamed and (Tan Sri) Abdul Gani Patail to meet the people in the US DoJ to discuss how they can assist in bringing Najib down.
“It was back to the drawing board for Mahathir. He needed a second bite of the apple. So this time he got Cynthia Gabriel, Matthias Chang, (PKR’s Subang MP) Sivarasa Rasiah and (Sarawak Report Editor) Clare Rewcastle Brown to handle the matter.”