Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak faced questioning for about five hours at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) headquarters in Putrajaya on Tuesday, May 22, over a suspicious transfer of $10.6 million to his bank account.

Najib was summoned after new information emerged in the commission’s investigation of SRC International, a former subsidiary of state fund 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), the commission’s new chief Shukri Abdull said.

Shukri, who was appointed by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on May 17 to head the anti-graft agency, gave an emotional press conference shortly after Najib entered the MACC building.

He told journalists how he “almost died” when he was investigating the 1MDB scandal and was forced to go into exile. “I was threatened to be fired, asked to retired early, take leave early, and pulled into the training department,” said Shukri, who was the deputy MACC chief under Najib. “The experience was quite frightening.”

Meanwhile, two of Najib’s lawyers quit, hours before his scheduled appointment with the commission, Channel News Asia reported.

For the past three years, Najib has been dogged by the 1MDB financial scandal, in which billions of dollars were allegedly siphoned from the state fund. His ruling coalition lost power in a shock election defeat on May 9, ending Barisan Nasional’s six-decade reign since Malaysian independence from Britain. Credit: Malaysia Decides via Storyful