As calls for Dr Mahathir Mohamad to apologise to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak continue to ring out in the wake of a Saudi Arabian minister’s remarks on the RM2.6 billion donation, a senator has decided to take it a step further.

Ali Rustam urged the special task force set up in the wake of the allegations concerning 1MDB and the RM2.6 billion to apologise as well.

He said this is because Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir had cleared the air on the money transferred to the prime minister’s personal bank accounts.

Furthermore, the former Malacca chief minister said, the formation of the task force created a negative perception.

“When the task force was formed, people had the perception that the prime minister committed wrongdoings, when in fact, this was just slander by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

“Because of this, the good name of the prime minister and the nation were tarnished .This cannot recur. The task force must apologise,” Ali is quoted as saying by Utusan Malaysia in its report today.

The task force was headed by former attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail and comprised the police, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and Bank Negara.

Soon after WSJ published the documents detailing the money trail to Najib’s accounts that it claimed were from Malaysian investigators, Gani ( photo ) was removed from his post, based on health reasons.

However, the government dismissed claims that it was designed to derail the task force’s investigations.

Last week, the Saudi foreign minister said that his government was aware of the donation and expected nothing in return.

Yesterday, WSJ claimed that part of the money from the phoney Aabar Investments PJS ended up in British Virgin Islands-based Tanore Finance Corp, the same entity that transferred US$681 million into Najib's personal bank accounts.

1MDB was reported to have transferred US$3.5 billion to the British Virgin Island-based company bearing a similar name to the International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) subsidiary Aabar Investments PJS, but having no links with the Abu Dhabi fund.

The prime minister’s press aide dismissed this as a lie peddled by Mahathir.

Najib has repeatedly denied abusing public funds for personal gain and blamed such allegations on those conspiring to topple him from power.

Attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali has also cleared the prime minister of any wrongdoing.