MALAYSIA has never accepted the practice of plea bargaining with criminal suspects, said former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad in his latest tirade against the government’s deal with Riza Aziz.

“Plea bargaining is practised in the United States of America. Even then it is about information which will give bigger gains to the government,” Dr Mahathir said in his latest blog post chedet.cc.

“It is not about returning stolen money. Most certainly it is not about returning less than half the money stolen,” Dr Mahathir wrote.

Riza, the stepson of Najib Razak was granted a discharge not amounting to acquittal for five counts of laundering US$248 million (RM1.25 billion) of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB)-linked funds.

Following the court’s decision on May 14 to drop the charges, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) said in a statement that the government was expected to recover overseas assets worth an estimated US$107.3 million (RM465.3 million) as part of an agreement between the prosecution and Riza.

If he does not honour his side of the bargain, Riza could be re-charged again.

However Dr Mahathir alleged that Riza’s deal is unique because the latter will source the money already seized by the United States Department of Justice.

The DoJ has been helping Malaysia recover funds siphoned from 1MBD and used to buy assets and properties in the US.

“Now this money would, by agreement with the previous Attorney General (AG), be returned to Malaysia upon proof that it belongs to Malaysia,” Dr Mahathir wrote. 

“So what Riza Aziz is willing to return is less than half of the money which will be seized by the US DoJ which the department is going to return to Malaysia.

“The bigger chunk of the money stolen by Riza would be retained by him. In other words, he is going to retain money stolen by him and be acquitted as well.”

The Riza decision has elicited competing statements by former attorney-general Tommy Thomas, who served under Dr Mahathir, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and current A-G Idrus Haron.

“All the people involved in making this decision are protesting that they did not make the decision. Obviously, they know that the decision is wrong,” Dr Mahathir said.

“The public is disgusted and angry. Is this the kind of justice practised in Malaysia?

Dr Mahathir said this was occurring because the current Perikatan Nasional government was being backed by “people presently being tried for stealing money, for money laundering and for corruption”.

Top leaders of Umno, which is part of the PN government, are currently undergoing trial on charges of graft and abuse power, and they include former prime minister Najib, Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and treasurer Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor.

Umno had formed the PN government together with Muhyiddin Yassin’s faction from Bersatu, Dr Mahathir’s party, and rebels from PKR, who had been part of the Pakatan Harapan government until last March.

The defections had caused the collapse of the PH government, of which Dr Mahathir was a prime minister. – May 21, 2020.