KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 16): Opposition lawmaker Rafizi Ramli has urged relevant authorities, especially Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) to reopen investigations into 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) on the emergence of more evidence and findings from other countries, as well as a conviction in relation to the fund in Singapore last week.

"Clearly the decision to close it [the probe into 1MDB] was extremely premature, in light of decisions or verdicts in other courts," he told reporters at the Parliament lobby today.

"Other courts have displayed to the world the whole scheme of 1MDB and our relevant authorities, yet the Attorney-General's Chamber or the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC), and especially Bank Negara, the central bank, don't do anything, [don't] react. It certainly seems as if they are not independent," he said.

Rafizi also said 1MDB is dragging the whole country down with it.

"Especially when [a case related to 1MDB] is getting convictions abroad. We have had a conviction in Singapore and [more] details of how [the fund's] money was laundered, how they profited and pocketed the money and this is just a tiny bit of it. And Jho low had been named officially," he noted.

"In normal circumstances, in other countries, the relevant authorities would have reopened the case and looked at it again, in case they missed anything or even if they didn't miss anything, they still have to incorporate the new evidence [that have emerged from] elsewhere," he said.

"Until there is a closure, and those who are responsible and accountable be brought to justice, people will continue to ask questions," he said.

Rafizi, a member of the People's Justice Party or Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), has been sentenced to 18 months jail on Monday after he was found guilty of violating the Official Secrets Act (OSA) by possessing and disclosing a page from the A-G's report on 1MDB without permission earlier this year.

The Sessions Court judge, in delivering the verdict, granted a stay of execution pending an appeal in the High Court.

In August, Bank Negara said investigations into 1MDB has been completed and all the necessary actions have been taken against the state investment fund, despite the US Department of Justice's civil forefeiture claim filed a month earlier to recover over US$1 billion worth of assets bought with funds it said was misappropriated from 1MDB.

Singapore authorities have also pressed charges on several ex-bankers in relation to the laundering of billions of dollars that is believed to have originated from 1MDB.

On Friday, Yak Yew Chee, a former BSI SA private banker, became the first person to plead guilty in a Singapore case linked to 1MDB. The judge convicted him on four charges including forging documents and failing to disclose suspicious transactions allegedly related to Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho.

The former senior banker at BSI had faced seven charges, and prosecutors said the other three charges would be taken into consideration for sentencing.

However, in an interview with Nikkei Asian Review published on Monday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, formerly the head of an advisory board to 1MDB, said the issue surrounding 1MDB has been politicised by certain elements, adding that Malaysian authorities have led the way in investigations into the troubled state fund.

He also pointed out that he was the first to instruct Malaysian authorities to investigate the company.