KUALA LUMPUR (April 30): Two “Datuks” who backed Datuk Seri Najib Razak in his nine years of power told the High Court here that they each received a cheque from the former premier in February 2015.

Testifying for the prosecution were the 22nd witness Datuk Lew Choon Lai, “a small time” developer who runs event management company Solar Shine Sdn Bhd which helped Najib to hold parties, fetes and functions for poor Indians and elderly Chinese, and the 23rd witness Datuk Habibul Rahman Kadir Shah Kadir, who was paid for undertaking “political operations” for BN intelligence purposes.

Habibul, who has been with Umno since 1984, told the court during his cross-examination by Najib's lawyer, Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, that he did not know the source of the RM2.5 million paid to him as he believed it was from a political donation.

"All past (Umno) presidents have their political funds, and many people want to provide political donations to establish goodwill with the Prime Minister," he said.

Habibul clarified that he received the RM2.5 million from Najib via a cheque to undertake "political operations", and not for a defence-related contract as related by the prosecution's 18th witness Ashraf Abdul Razak in his testimony earlier.

The RM2.5 million cheque was issued to law firm Zulqarnain & Co, in which Ashraf was a partner.

In a previous trial session, Ashraf, 48, a lawyer who worked for Habibul, told the High Court that the RM2.5 million cheque dated Feb 2, 2015 was meant for an unspecified defence contract.

However, during cross-examination session today by Shafee, Habibul said he does not have any interests in the defence industry and believed Ashraf had made a mistake in his testimony

"The money is used for BN intelligence purposes. I received the cheque personally from Najib at his official residence in Putrajaya," he said, emphasising that the amount is for political operations.

Cheque not issued to Habibul so that it won’t be identified as income

Habibul said he cannot remember if the cheque was written in front of him but noted that he gave the name of Zulqarnain & Co.

The witness said he had asked the cheque to be deposited into the law firm’s account so that it would not be shown as income for him.

Habibul added that after obtaining the cheque, he passed it to Ashraf and asked the lawyer to prepare a few cheques for his wife and children, with the balance kept for BN operations,

Habibul, who is a qualified accountant who has worked for Bata, Loreal and also Nestle, explained his role as a person providing intelligence for Najib.

"The money is used to collect intelligence, and for political purposes. Some of it was used for furthering political purposes,” said the witness during examination in chief by Deputy Public Prosecutor Muhammad Saifuddin Hashim Musaimi.

Habibul was asked by Saifuddin to identify Najib, and he smiled, saying he believes the former premier is in court.

On his political analysis skills, the witness said one must develop sufficient capability to evaluate situations.

When asked if he is a political analyst, Habibul said that is what people used to call him.

Habibul said the political intelligence operation was needed to give politician's political foresight.

"Nobody gives information for free," he added.

When asked about his political projects, he declined to elaborate.

"It is special operations and there is nothing illegal. The idea is to defuse politic threat," he said adding without explaining what were the political threat.

He said he would underatake these projects at his own cost before he was reimbursed.

Helping 1Malaysia

Lew testified that he received a cheque for RM1 million from Najib for Solar Shine to organise events for the poor Indian and elderly Chinese community.

"We give food goodies, Milo and distribute to the Indian resident area. We also organise dinner Chinese event in rural areas," he said, adding Solar Shine would coordinate with BN to organise dinners and lucky draws.

Lew said he first met Najib in 2015 through Tan Sri William Cheng (of the Lion Group) and he volunteered to undertake a ground campaign for the Indians and senior Chinese citizen all over the country.

"I am a strong believer of 1Malaysia. The ground campaign was stopped after the 14th General Election, we were devastated (for the fall of Najib as Prime Minister)," he said.

1Malaysia is Najib's pet project to promote national unity among the races.

Lew says he met Najib several months later in 2015 to relate the feeling on the ground and received the cheque personally from Najib's office on the fifth floor of the Prime Minister's office.

SRC did not lodge complaint over transfer of RM80 million

Ambank Raja Chulan branch manager, R Uma Devi, 39, during re-examination from appointed prosecutor Datuk V Sithambaram said there were no complaints made by SRC International Sdn Bhd over the transfer of RM80 million funds, some of which later made its way to Najib's accounts.

“In my record there has been no complaints,” she said.

Najib is also the advisor emeritus of SRC besides being the Prime Minister and Finance Minister at one point of time.

Uma Devi, who had testified for three days, agreed that various cheques were issued from these three accounts.

She also confirmed that missing SRC ex-CEO Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil was not allowed to take any money from Najib’s accounts and described the activity there as “unusual”.

The witness agrees that the cheques to Najib's accounts can only be signed by the former premier alone.

In the afternoon session today, the prosecution called in their 24th prosecution witness, AmBank Remittances manager for Rentas division Wedani Senen to verify various confirmation advice for transactions involving Najib's AmBank account with parties including SRC, Putra Perdana Construction Sdn Bhd, Permai Bina Raya Sdn Bhd and Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd.

The verification process lasted the entire afternoon session, except for a 10-minute break at about 4pm today, before court adjourned until Thursday (May 2) morning.