Kualalampur: The ousted Malaysian prime minister, Najib Razak, has been prevented from leaving the country after appearing to attempt to take a flight to Indonesia.
The country’s immigration department said in a brief statement on Saturday that Najib and his wife, Rosmah Mansor, have “just been blacklisted from leaving the country”.
The statement came after a flight schedule had shown that Najib and his wife were due to take a private jet to Jakarta at 10am from on Saturday morning.
But Najib, who faces being investigated by the incoming government for alleged corruption, never appeared and the private jet, owned by Indonesian company Premiair, remained on the tarmac at Subang airport near Kuala Lumpur.
Following the announcement of the ban, Najib said he and his family would respect it and stay in the country.
“I have been informed that the Malaysian immigration department will not allow my family and me to go overseas,” Najib said in a tweet. “I respect the directive and will remain with my family in the country.”
After the reports of his flight emerged on Friday night, dozens of people, accompanied by a large pack of journalists, had descended on the small airport just outside the capital in the early hours to protest his departure. Riot police were stationed outside the gate where people believed Najib would enter.
After losing the election this week to the opposition, led by former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, there had been concerns that Najib would try to flee the country to avoid the chance of prosecution for his role in the 1MDB scandal, which he was accused of covering up while in office. Mahathir has pledged a full independent investigation into the billions of embezzled funds and many believethis will implicate Najib.
After his flight schedule was made public on Friday night, Najib tweeted that he was taking a “short break” to spend time with his family and apologised for his “shortcomings and mistakes”.
“After over four decades in politics and the recent election campaign, which was regrettably personal and perhaps the most intense in Malaysian history, I will take a short break to spend time with my family whom I have not seen enough of in recent years,” Najib said in a tweet.