NAJIB Razak is being discriminated against on charges that he attempted to alter the 2016 audit report for troubled state fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), said his lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah. 

Shafee said while former 1MDB chief Arul Kanda Kandasamy was charged with abetment of the same offence, his client was slapped with a much higher bail.

“In Arul Kanda’s case, the prosecutor asked for a RM500,000 bail but in the case of Najib, he asked for RM1 million bail,” Shafee said outside the courtroom after Najib was charged.

“It shows clearly, there is discrimination and unfairness because as you can see, Najib has got RM5.5 million in bail previously,” he said, referring to the former prime minister’s bail amount from earlier charges.

The judge later lowered Najib’s bail to RM500,000.

The prosecution also changed their stance in the charges against Najib, Shafee said. 

They were going to charge Najib with tampering but backtracked as they didn’t have sufficient evidence, Shafee said.

“They now say Najib only made direction in the draft formats (of the audit report). If tampered, that means the audit report is ready,” he said. 

Najib was charged with directing amendments to the final audit report of 1MDB.

He was arrested by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission after he showed up at its headquarters on Monday but released on the same day.

The investigation was prompted by Auditor-General Madinah Mohamad’s revelations on November 25 that the 1MDB final audit report was modified upon Najib’s request.

Madinah said two key points were removed from the report, including the presence of fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low, at a 1MDB board meeting and the state investor’s financial status.

Najib is facing 32 counts of corruption, money-laundering and abuse of power in relation to 1MDB.

He faces an additional six counts of criminal breach of trust (CBT) of RM6.6 billion in government funds and was jointly charged with former Treasury secretary-general Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah. Both men claimed trial in October. – December 12, 2018.