In a Facebook post, the former prime minister said that based on bank documents that he had made public, the funds were channelled directly from the kingdom’s finance ministry and from the royal family.

“Although Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Ahmed Al-Jubeir had himself said, twice, that Saudi Arabia donated the money to me, Malaysia’s Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah claimed today that Adel had told him the purported RM2.6 billion was not linked to the Saudi government,” Najib wrote.

According to Bernama, Adel had informed Saifuddin about the matter during a meeting at Wisma Putra, Putrajaya, here.

“He (Adel) said that the (RM2.6 billion donation) had nothing to do with the Saudi Arabian government,” the national news agency reported Saifuddin as saying.

Adel had in 2016 confirmed that the Saudis had donated billions of ringgit to Najib.

“We are aware of the donation, and it is a genuine donation with nothing expected in return,” Adel was quoted as saying at a summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul.

Najib had always maintained the money banked into his account was from a donation and did not come from 1MDB.

Last month, authorities arrested Najib, who is also the former finance minister, in connection with the alleged deposit of RM2.6 billion into his personal account.

In 2015, The Wall Street Journal, citing the Malaysian authorities’ investigation papers, reported that the RM2.6 billion, linked by some to state-owned 1MDB, was funnelled into Najib’s personal bank accounts.

Najib, in response, said the money came from a member of the Saudi royal family to help Umno in its 2013 general election campaign. He was later cleared of any wrongdoing by the then attorney-general Apandi Ali.