Party vice-president Zaidel Baharuddin said in a statement there was a possibility of corruption involving Malaysians in the purchase of the submarines following charges levelled against Thales in France.

“The authorities should reopen investigations into the deal as it’s obvious there was some wrongdoing involving a Malaysian party,” he said.

He was commenting on an AFP report that a French judge had yesterday charged Thales with complicity in bribery over the 2002 sale of submarines to Malaysia.

Zaidel said there would be no corruption without a receiving party who was in a position to influence the deal.

The long-running case into alleged kickbacks was opened in 2010 and the name of former prime minister Najib Razak became linked to it.

Najib was defence minister when the deal was signed to buy two Scorpene-class submarines and one Agosta submarine from French naval dockyards unit DCN, now part of Thales, in a deal worth US$1.2 billion.

Najib’s associate Abdul Razak Baginda acted as an adviser on the deal, and he was accused of disguising the kickback of more than €114 million as “consulting work” by a firm in which he was the largest shareholder.

The money was then allegedly given to Najib, who is facing a series of unconnected graft cases linked to 1Malaysia Development Bhd.

In 2018, a fresh probe was launched in Malaysia on the submarine deal and Najib was called in by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to give a statement.

AFP reported that in total, nine defendants, including Thales, had been charged in France.

Allegations of corruption emerged following the 2006 murder of Mongolian interpreter Altantuya Shaariibuu by two police officers of the Special Action Unit (UTK) who were previously bodyguards to Najib.