Ex-IGP Fuzi: Dr Mahathir, Muhyiddin, Daim asked in 2018 why Najib and 1MDB officials not yet charged; no interference in AG’s decision to charge

Ex-IGP Fuzi: Dr Mahathir, Muhyiddin, Daim asked in 2018 why Najib and 1MDB officials not yet charged; no interference in AG’s decision to charge



Tan Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun was the 11th inspector-general of police from 2017 until his 2019 retirement. — Picture by Hari Anggara

Tuesday, 15 Apr 2025 1:30 PM MYT


KUALA LUMPUR, April 15 — Then prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, then home minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, and the late Tun Daim Zainuddin had all asked the police in 2018 why no charges were pressed yet against former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and others over the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal, the High Court heard today.

Tan Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun, who was the 11th inspector-general of police from 2017 until his 2019 retirement, said this while testifying as the 19th defence witness in Najib’s 1MDB trial.


Fuzi said all these three prominent individuals had separately asked the police to provide a briefing to them on the status of police’s investigations on the 1MDB case, but also confirmed that these three did not interfere in then attorney general Tan Sri Tommy Thomas’s decision to charge Najib.

Fuzi listed these briefings by the police, namely a briefing to then prime minister Dr Mahathir at the Perdana Leadership Foundation, Putrajaya on May 15, 2018 on the Prime Minister’s Office’s instructions; another briefing to Dr Mahathir in July 2018 at the latter’s home at The Mines; a briefing to Muhyiddin on July 23, 2018; and a briefing to Daim on August 9, 2018.


Fuzi did not state Daim’s role at the time the briefing was held, but Daim was then the head of the advisory body Council of Eminent Persons — which Dr Mahathir had formed on May 12, 2018.


In the first briefing, Fuzi said Dr Mahathir asked about the status of investigations on Najib, adding that the police informed the prime minister that investigations had not been completed as the police needed to get evidence from abroad through mutual legal assistance.

“Not long after that, around July 2018, I was personally contacted by Tun Mahathir to meet him at his residence at The Mines, since he was not satisfied that there were no charges brought in court on suspects in the 1MDB case, Datuk Seri Najib and other individuals still had not been charged in court,” Fuzi said in court here.


Fuzi said he told Dr Mahathir that the police’s investigation papers had been submitted to the Attorney General’s Chambers and that it was the AGC that would decide on charges.

In the July 23, 2018 briefing where other senior police officers such as then deputy IGP Tan Sri Noor Rashid Ibrahim also attended, Fuzi said Muhyiddin’s questions and reactions were also focused on Najib and 1MDB’s directors and senior management.

Also present at this briefing to Muhyiddin were the police’s Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) then director Datuk Seri Amar Singh, and SAC Datuk Khalil Azlan Chik as the head of the police’s anti-money laundering investigation.

As for the August 9, 2018 police briefing at Menara Ilham to Daim, Fuzi said the latter also asked why there were no charges yet on “the suspects, especially Datuk Seri Najib”.

Present at this briefing were also Khalil, CCID Kuala Lumpur’s SAC Rusdi and SAC Mazli from the IGP’s secretariat, Fuzi said.

Fuzi said all the briefings were delivered by the 1MDB case’s investigation officer R. Rajagopal who had the ACP rank then.



Asked by Najib’s lead defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, Fuzi said all four briefings were carried out on the orders of Dr Mahathir, Muhyiddin and Daim and confirmed he had attended the briefings as the IGP as these were high-ranking individuals.

Asked by Shafee, Fuzi confirmed that all three individuals had made the same complaint over why charges had not been made yet in the 1MDB case.

Shafee: Who was the focus of those complaints? Charges were slow towards who?

Fuzi: Towards firstly, Datuk Seri Najib. Secondly to the board of directors and highest management of 1MDB.

Earlier, Fuzi agreed with the prosecution’s deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib that no one had made any decisions during those briefings, as it is the AG that decides whether there is sufficient evidence to press charges.

Fuzi said those three individuals cannot make decisions on charging, and also said the briefings remain as briefings only.

Akram: Lastly, I suggest that because no decisions were made by these three individuals, therefore I put it to you, that there were no elements of interference in the decision made by the attorney general to charge Datuk Seri Najib in this case.

Fuzi: I agree.

Among other things, Fuzi said he was informed as the IGP about Rajagopal’s proposal for 1MDB’s directors and management to be charged for offences under the Penal Code, and that Rajagopal had said then AG Thomas was briefed several times since July 2018 about proposals for charges to be brought.

Fuzi said Thomas did ask the police to file charges on several individuals who had fled from Malaysia in order to obtain arrest warrants on them, but did not name these individuals.

“Investigating officer ACP Rajagopal also informed me that no charges had been ordered for other individuals in 1MDB’s management who were still in Malaysia, since they would be made witnesses in the charges against Datuk Seri Najib,” Fuzi said, also without naming these individuals in 1MDB.

Najib’s Barisan Nasional coalition lost the May 9, 2018 elections, and Dr Mahathir was sworn in as prime minister on May 10, 2018.

Najib’s 1MDB trial ended earlier today as he successfully obtained approval as a prisoner to be brought to Masjid Negara to pay his last respects to his predecessor Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

The trial before trial judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah resumes tomorrow.