A ROYAL Commission of Inquiry should be set up to investigate reports that Prime Minister Najib Razak had used money from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) to target political foes, said PKR vice president Rafizi Ramli.

Rafizi said now is the time for the Conference of Rulers to intervene, following reports that Najib had allegedly paid a sum of money to lawyers to fight his political foes, especially PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim who was jailed for sodomy.

“The investigation should focus on how much impact and influence the payments made to the court officials, especially the government appointed prosecutor, Shafee Abdullah, had in court decisions especially in the incarceration of Anwar,” said Rafizi, who is also Pandan MP.

Shafee was appointed as the public prosecutor at the appeal stage of Anwar’s sodomy trial after the High Court had acquitted him.

“I’m planning an awareness campaign through social media to explain to villagers how their money had been used by Najib to end Anwar’s career, which resulted in him getting imprisoned.

“I will also focus my attention on all important facts in the investigation paper that provide details on how much top-ranked civil servants know about the funds that went into Najib’s personal account, before the matter was leaked to the public,” he said in a statement today.

Najib and his personal bank account came under the spotlight again after whistleblower site Sarawak Report alleged that “Najib Paid Anwar’s Prosecutor RM9.5 Million From 1MDB Slush Fund WHY?” on May 31.

It reported that Najib allegedly paid Shafee RM5.2 million in February 2014 and RM4.3 million in September 2013, adding that Shafee was the “biggest individual recipient of money from the slush fund accounts”.

The whistleblower site said the money came from the bank account “that had been identified as having been funded by money stolen by the Prime Minister from the 1MDB subsidiary SRC, which had borrowed some RM4 billion from the civil service pension fund (Retirement Fund Inc) KWAP”.

Sarawak Report said the RM5.2 million Shafee allegedly received in February 2014 came just a fortnight before the Court of Appeal overturned an earlier acquittal of Anwar’s sodomy charge.

Neither Najib nor Shafee has addressed the allegation since the Sarawak Report story was published. – June 6, 2017.