FORMER attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali revealed why he resorted to posting the explosive revelation of his meeting with Gopal Sri Ram more than two years ago, with the former judge allegedly trying to get him to arrest then prime minister Najib Razak.

“It had to be done. Gopal Sri Ram is behaving like he is the attorney-general.”

In his post, Apandi had alleged Sri Ram had come to his home on instructions from Dr Mahathir Mohamad to arrest Najib.

When prompted on why he had not previously made this meeting public, Apandi replied: “I couldn’t be bothered (then).”

“But now he (Sri Ram) is behaving like the A-G (attorney-general). I have to check it. He is talking as though he is the A-G.”

The Malaysian Insight has contacted Sri Ram and is waiting for his response.

Sri Ram, a former Federal Court judge, is the lead prosecutor in Najib’s 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) trial.

The 76-year-old is leading the prosecution team in Najib’s and former 1MDB chief executive officer Arul Kanda Kandasamy’s joint trial on the tampering of 1MDB audit report, Rosmah Mansor’s graft trial, and the money-laundering trial of Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, who is Najib’s lawyer.

Apandi said the post was indeed a prelude to a “voluminous” memoir, which he hopes to publish by year-end.

“It will cover various chapters of my life as a judge, a DPP (deputy public prosecutor) and as A-G.”

Apandi, 70, promised the memoir will contain further “revelations”.

“Such as the (Pulau) Batu Puteh dispute with Singapore,” Apandi said, referring to Malaysia’s decision to withdraw from the case from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in June 2018.

“You see, out of the blue, when Mahathir came to power, he just withdrew the case.

“This happened just one week before the case was supposed to be heard at the ICJ at The Hague in the Netherlands.”

Malaysia withdrew its request for a review of the ICJ’s 2008 ruling in favour of Singapore on June 1.

The Hague was set to hear the case for two weeks starting June 11.

Singapore dubbed the island Pedra Branca (white rock), where it has been operating a lighthouse for more than 130 years. Malaysia had previously argued that Pulau Batu Puteh is part of Johor is just 7km from its coastline, while the island is 24km from Singapore. 

Apandi, who obtained his Bar-at-Law from the Inner Temple, London, became a high court judge in 2004, before being appointed as a Court of Appeal judge in 2010 and later a Federal Court judge in 2013. He was appointed attorney-general in July 2015 after the termination of Abdul Gani Patail’s appointment.

He has been running a private firm after the Barisan Nasional government lost the 2018 general election. 

In March, Apandi testified at the SRC International trial, where he defended his decision not to pursue charges against Najib in early 2016 over the alleged RM2.6 billion Saudi donations as well as the alleged misappropriation of RM42 million of SRC International funds.

Apandi further denied he was involved in a cover-up to protect Najib, maintaining a lack of evidence the former prime minister had committed any wrongdoing. – June 10, 2020.