KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 13): Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said that he returned the purported Arab donation, because the 13th general elections were over and he didn’t need a large sum of money.

Testifying in his defence in the ongoing 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB)-Tanore trial, Najib also reiterated that he did not want the funds in his personal account to be misinterpreted negatively by people.

During cross-examination on Monday, deputy public prosecutor Kamal Baharin Omar highlighted that Najib had returned US$620 million [out of US$681 million (RM2.081 billion)] back to Tanore Finance Corp, which was the sender of this particular transaction.

“The elections were over, and I didn’t need such a large sum [of funds]. There would be many inferences about the money, so I returned it to the sender,” Najib said.

He testified that he wrote a letter to his bank to return the money to the sender, but did not officially write to Tanore, or to the former governor of Madinah province Prince Saud Abdulaziz Al Saud (Saud), or to the then-Saudi Arabian Ruler, King Abdullah, about the return of the funds.

It is Najib’s testimony that Saud was the conduit of the Saudi royal family, issuing four letters from 2011 to 2014, confirming the inflow of funds into his account.

Najib had testified previously that the monies was a personal donation from the late Saudi King Abdullah, a gift for Najib’s contributions to the Islamic world.

It should be noted that Najib had also testified that he does not know Saud personally.

Najib: I didn’t send (letters informing of the return of fund). But through the (banking) system, they would know.

Kamal: Yes, through the (banking) system, it will go through; but, it will be through Tanore. Saud is not in the system.

Najib: I took it as Tanore was also linked to the Saudi royal family.

It also has to be noted that according to evidence tendered in court, some of the monies that flowed into Najib’s accounts also originated from Tanore Finance Corp, Blackrock Commodities, and Vista Equity, all of which were linked to fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho (Jho Low).

The now imprisoned 71-year-old has maintained that he did not know that these were offshore accounts, adding that even if they were, it wouldn’t be a surprise, as “it would be naive to hold the view that the Arab conglomerates would confine their investments only to the Middle East”.

Najib has also reiterated that these entities were listed in the donation letters informing him of the incoming flow of monies.

Najib is currently serving his prison sentence in Kajang Prison, after the apex court dismissed his final appeal in the RM42 million SRC International Sdn Bhd case in August 2022. He was also slapped with a fine.

On Monday, the prosecution drilled into several glaring contradictions regarding the opening of Najib’s AmBank account and the donation letters. The ex-PM agreed that there were some differences, but said he would elaborate more on this later, during re-examination by his lawyers.

One such difference was Jho Low’s presence at Najib’s private residence, when former AmBank managing director Cheah Tek Kuang came over for the ex-PM to sign the account-opening forms. But in the Tanore trial, Najib insisted that Jho Low was not present.

Kamal also highlighted that in SRC, Najib said that Jho Low introduced him to Cheah, but in Tanore, the ex-PM said that his principal private secretary, the late Datuk Azlin Alias, was the one who made the introduction.

To these queries, Najib merely answered: “There is a difference [on surface]; I will give an explanation later”.  

Kamal also highlighted that in SRC, Najib said that (the late) King Abdullah would present him with support, but did not specify that it was monetary support, as he did in this trial.

In the SRC trial, Najib’s core defence was also that the monies were a donation from the Saudi King. He buttressed this with the four donation letters from Saud. However, the courts have ruled that these letters are not legitimate.

The ex-PM’s counsels have insisted on presenting the same evidence, as they want this court to make a separate finding about the legitimacy of the letters.  

It has to be noted that in his decision to order for Najib to enter his defence, presiding judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah has ruled that the donation letters were dubious.

On Monday, Kamal picked up where he left off last week, highlighting many gaps and discrepancies in these pivotal letters. Some issues raised were Saud’s signature, the official Saud stamp, and the lack of reference made to earlier donations.

Kamal then suggested that these letters were crafted by Jho Low. To this, Najib replied in the negative.

Kamal: I put to you that these letters were crafted by Jho Low.

Najib: Disagree.

The trial continues.