Dr M on Riza Aziz: He retains half the stolen money and gets acquitted

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia has never accepted nor practised the concept of a plea bargain, says Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in reference to Riza Shahriz Abdul Aziz' recent release from money laundering charges related to the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal.

“Plea bargain is practised in the United States.

"Even then, it is about information which will give bigger gains to the government.

“It is not about returning stolen money. Most certainly, it is not about returning less than half the money stolen, ” he wrote in his blog Thursday (May 21).

Riza Aziz, the stepson of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, was released from five counts of money-laundering over US$248mil (RM1.25bil) linked to 1MDB on Thursday (May 14), which was initially fixed for case management.

An agreement was reached under the terms of which the government will receive a substantial sum running into millions of ringgit.

Dr Mahathir said the concession given to Riza was unique, as he would source the sum from the money seized by the Department of Justice (DOJ) of the United States.

“Now this money would, by agreement with the previous Attorney General (AG), be returned to Malaysia upon proof that it belongs to Malaysia.

“So what Riza Aziz is willing to return is less than half of the money seized by the US Department of Justice (DOJ), which the department is going to return to Malaysia.

“The bigger chunk of the money stolen by Riza would be retained by him. In other words, he is going to retain money stolen by him and be acquitted as well, ” he said.

Expressing his dismay that the decision was wrong and that those involved in making this decision were protesting that they did not make the decision, the former premier questioned if this was the kind of justice practised in Malaysia.

“The public is disgusted and angry.

“We cannot feel sure that justice will be upheld in this country, because of the power and influence of these criminals.

“Already, we are seeing Parliament being silenced. Democracy is dead, ” he said, adding that the world was laughing at Malaysia for bringing back a kleptocracy after overthrowing it.