KUALA LUMPUR: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has trained his guns on Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali, pointing out how the former Attorney-General (AG) had been derelict in his duties in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) case.

Dr Mahathir defended his move in May 2018 to remove Apandi, saying that he was now alarmed to know that despite 1MDB misconduct reported by former Bank Negara Malaysia government Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Apandi did not take any action.

"Another example of Apandi's wrongful decision was to dismiss all the cases against Datuk Seri Najib Razak. But when another AG brought Najib's cases to court, three courts and nine judges found Najib guilty.

"Clearly Apandi as AG did not study the case thoroughly before declaring that Najib had no case to answer.

"This again shows a dereliction of duty on the part of Apandi. Yet,when he sued the government and me for wrongful dismissal, the government agreed to settle the case outside the court and awarded Apandi an unknown sum to drop his action in suing the government and me.

"This means that the government agreed that he was wrongfully dismissed," said Dr Mahathir in a post on his Facebook page today.

The former twice prime minister said he was not party to the settlement and he did not agree that he had wrongfully dismissed Apandi.

Dr Mahathir said given the report that Apandi had failed to take action on the report from Bank Negara proved that he was not doing his duty as the AG.

"This further justified his dismissal as AG. That such an AG. should be compensated with unknown sums of money does not reflect well on the rule of law in this country," he said.

On May 14,2018, Dr Mahathir, who was then prime minister, said Apandi had been asked to go on leave and that the Solicitor-General would assume the AG's job.

On Oct 13,2020, Apandi filed a suit seeking a declaration that the termination of his contract as AG by Dr Mahathir was unlawful. He named Dr Mahathir and the government as the first and second defendants respectively.

It was reported on April 13 last year that Apandi's suit against Dr Mahathir and the government over the termination of his contract as AG was settled out of court at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

Dr Mahathir questioned the government's move to classify the terms of settlement of the civil suit by Apandi under the Official Secrets Act.

He questioned Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said's decision to make a secret of the settlement of Apandi's demand for compensation for his dismissal.

"Apandi, the former AG of the government of Najib, made his demand publicly. He even named the amount at RM2,233,599.36. Yet the compensation made by the government is a secret. Why?" asked Dr Mahathir in February this year.

Dr Mahathir said he wanted a reason because he does not think Apandi deserved to be compensated at all.

Azalina had reportedly said both parties had agreed to keep the negotiations and terms a secret.

https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2023/08/945926/dr-m-apandi-had-been-derelict-his-duties-secret-payment-him-unjustified