Najib didn't tell MACC about meeting with late Saudi king, court told
Published on: Monday, April 22, 2024
By:
FMT, V Anbalagan
The High Court hearing Najib Razak’s 1MDB corruption trial heard that MACC was not told he had led a ministerial delegation to meet the late King Abdullah Abdul Aziz Al-Saud in 2010.
Kuala Lumpur: Najib Razak’s 1MDB corruption trial was told today the former prime minister did not reveal to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission that he had led a ministerial delegation to meet the late King Abdullah Abdul Aziz Al-Saud in 2010.
MACC investigating officer Nur Aida Arifin told the High Court that Najib did not volunteer this information when an officer recorded his cautioned statement under Section 53(3) of the MACC Act.
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A recording officer was tasked to take Najib’s statement at the MACC headquarters on Sept 19 and 20, 2018, before he was charged.
Aida, the 49th prosecution witness, revealed this when cross-examined by lead defence counsel Shafee Abdullah.
Shafee had asked Aida why MACC did not record statements from then foreign minister Anifah Aman, former Islamic religious affairs minister Jamil Khir Baharom and former Malaysian ambassador to Saudi Arabia Syed Omar Al-Saggaf, who were said to have accompanied Najib to meet King Abdullah.
She replied that the issue did not arise then.
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“Najib also did not mention this. It was only during the SRC trial (at the defence stage) when this issue came up,” she said, adding that the prosecution had not given any instructions to obtain statements from the trio.
Shafee then asked Aida why the officer did not ask Najib to elaborate on the meeting with King Abdullah, held on Jan 11, 2010.
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“Najib was free to add on any details as he wished as it was his statement of defence, but he did not do so,” she said.
In the SRC International corruption trial, it was revealed that King Abdullah had offered financial aid to help Najib win the 2013 general election during an unofficial meeting on Jan 11, 2010 at the palace in Riyadh.
Anifah, Jamil and Syed Omar had testified after Najib was ordered to enter his defence by trial judge Nazlan Ghazali.
In the SRC case, Najib’s defence was that he believed the monies that were deposited into his private accounts were a donation from the king.
Syed Omar testified he was made to understand that King Abdullah had offered aid in the form of funds which would be sent for use by Najib in the 2013 elections.
Evidence had shown that in 2011, Najib received almost US$100 million from Prince Turki bin Abdullah Al Saud and the finance ministry in Riyadh, and in 2012, he obtained another US$270 million from Prince Faisal Turki Al Saud and Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners.
In 2013, he is said to have received US$681 million but returned US$620 million after the general election that year. Najib was expected to obtain 50 million pounds from the Saudi royal family but only received 10 million pounds in 2014.
Aida also agreed with Shafee that Najib had indicated he was uncomfortable with large sums of money in his account.
“Najib had revealed that he wanted to source monies for political funding and did not want to resort to other means adopted by previous prime ministers,” she said.
Najib is standing trial on 25 charges of abuse of power and money laundering over alleged 1MDB funds amounting to RM2.28 billion deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.
The hearing before Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues.
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