KUALA LUMPUR, April 15 — The Saudi Arabian government’s confirmation that the RM2.6 billion donation to Datuk Seri Najib Razak came from their country shows the falsity of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s claims, the prime minister’s press secretary said today.

Datuk Seri Tengku Sariffuddin noted that Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir’s statement, which described the donation as a “genuine” gift with nothing expected in return, confirmed what Najib had maintained all along and corroborated the conclusion by local authorities that the money was a donation from Saudi Arabia.

“Tun Mahathir’s lies were motivated by personal interest, not care for Malaysia or the people. It was an attempt to use deception to unseat a democratically-elected government, just to save the political career of Tun Mahathir’s son, Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir,” Tengku said in a statement, referring to the former prime minister and the elder statesman’s son who was formerly Kedah mentri besar.

“Western media who allowed themselves to be used to propagate false politically-motivated allegations should apologise to the Malaysian people. And Tun Mahathir should held responsible for the damage he has inflicted on Malaysia’s reputation,” he added.

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National newswire Bernama reported Adel as saying at the summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul yesterday that Saudi Arabia was also fully aware that Malaysia’s Attorney-General had found no wrongdoing in the money transfer to Najib’s personal bank accounts.

UK paper The Guardian reported Adel as saying that “the matter is closed”, without elaborating on who had donated the US$681 million or why.