The court should have issued a judicial notice that “Malaysian Official 1” (MO1) described in the US Department of Justice's civil forfeiture action involving 1MDB is Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, an opposition leader said.

Parti Amanah Negara Youth deputy chief Faiz Fadzil said this in describing his shock over the ruling made by the Court of Appeal yesterday that it took judicial notice that Najib had been cleared of the 1MDB affair by Malaysian authorities.

"Being a law practitioner myself, I am surprised as a judicial notice is only applicable when the facts are known in public and do not create doubt.

"Najib's alleged involvement in the abuses involving 1MDB is still the subject of US Department of Justice investigations and even the attorney-general (Mohamed Apandi Ali) had recently said 1MDB is still being investigated by the police," he said.

Faiz, the son of late PAS president Fadzil Noor, added that Najib had not been cleared by any court on the 1MDB issue and hence the court could not have made a judicial notice...