Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is implicated in the US Department of Justice (DOJ) forfeiture lawsuit even if he is not named in it, said Bersih chairperson Maria Chin Abdullah.

"Najib of course has to resign as he is very much implicated even if (he was) not named by the US.

"Domestically, there are now reasons for the court case against Najib to be re-opened and all information to be declassified to support the legal challenge," she told Malaysiakini when contacted today.

The attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali should re-open the case if he has any sense of integrity, she added, because the DOJ lawsuit has opened up "extremely damning" evidence.

The DOJ had said that US$731 million was allegedly siphoned from 1MDB into a bank account owned by the unnamed 'Malaysian Official 1'.

Instead of "blindly defending" the prime minister, Apandi should investigate who Malaysian Official 1 is, and if he does not, he should be removed as attorney-general, Maria (photo) said.

"Money in billions are siphoned off from 1MDB fraudulently and it's a company owned by the federal government under the Finance Ministry.

"It's already a crime, and all these happened when Najib was holding all those positions," she added.

Meanwhile, Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) executive director Cynthia Gabriel also said that Najib is implicated in the lawsuit due to his stepson Riza Aziz being named in it, as it is "high level nepotism" at work.

"He (Najib) had failed to protect Malaysians as the prime minister. He has served and put his family's interests above the public and ought to be brought under Section 23 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act for abuse of power by a public official," she said.

She also expressed concern that Najib could be let off the hook because his name isn't explicitly stated in the lawsuit, though she stressed that he must do the honourable thing and resign with immediate effect.

The former 1MDB board should also be charged for facilitating the theft of public funds, she added.

The DOJ had earlier filed lawsuits in Los Angeles, seeking to seize assets located in US and abroad, including in the UK and Switzerland, as it alleged that the assets were involved in money-laundering through 1MDB.

The assets include mansions, artworks, a private jet and gambling debt in Las Vegas casinos.

The lawsuit named Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's stepson Riza Aziz, family friend and businessman Jho Low and two Abu Dhabi government officials, Khadem al-Qubaisi and Mohamed Ahmed Badawy Al-Husseiny.

Najib was not named in the lawsuit.