Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article quoted Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim as saying he accepted Najib Razak’s apology. The Prime Minister’s Office has since said that it should be “welcome” instead of “accept”. The article has been amended accordingly.

“I welcome it (terima baik),” he told reporters here after Friday prayers when asked to comment on the apology issued by Najib yesterday.

Malaysian and US authorities allege that about US$4.5 billion was misappropriated from 1MDB, a state fund co-founded by Najib. He has been slapped with a total of 42 charges in several trials linked to 1MDB.

Najib is currently serving a reduced six-year sentence following a pardon after he was convicted of misappropriating RM42 million in funds belonging to former 1MDB subsidiary SRC International.

Yesterday, he said he had reflected on the 1MDB fiasco over the past 26 months, and it pained him that it happened when he was the prime minister and finance minister.

“… and I would like to apologise unreservedly,” he said in a statement read out by his son, Nizar, at the lobby of the Kuala Lumpur Court Complex.

Najib also denied being the mastermind or collaborating with fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, in the scheme.

His apology came six days before the High Court decides whether he is to enter his defence in a 1MDB corruption case that started five years ago.