THE Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission said it received a letter from a Saudi prince about a donation of RM2.6 billion to Najib Razak but the gift was not supported by any document.

Its chief, Mohd Shukri Abdull, said investigators went to Saudi Arabia to meet the prince to record his statement over the RM2.6 billion donation.

“There was a letter given to us to say that the donation came from a prince. Someone even directed us to some prince and we did go and interview the prince but when we asked for supporting documents, he could not provide them,” said Shukri.

Shukri said with the support of the new government, the team could now interview witnesses abroad.

He said to do that, tthe attorney-general needed to approve Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) for the team but as the A-G had been told to go on leave, the authorisation would have to come from the person next in charge.

“We needed an MLA from the A-G to pursue (the lead) and find out whether the claim was true, but he refused to (give it to us),” said Shukri.

Shukri said an MLA authorised by the A-G was required for MACC to record the statements of non-Malaysians overseas, among others.

He admitted the agency had difficulties dealing with Arab countries.

“We had no problem with the US, Luxembourg, Swiss authorities… But we had difficulties dealing with Arab countries, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE.”

Former A-G Mohamad Apandi Ali had previously rejected Swiss and American authorities’s request for MLA in connection with investigations into 1MDB. – May 22, 2018.