PUTRAJAYA (Feb 12): Datuk Tengku Rahimah Sultan Mahmud testified at the High Court here on Wednesday that fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) had given her the impression that he had a close relationship with former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak when they initially met around 2008.

Testifying as a subpoenaed witness in Najib’s defence in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB)-Tanore trial on Wednesday, Tengku Rahimah, who is the sister of the Sultan of Terengganu, Sultan Mizan Zainal Abdin, said that she had first met Jho Low around 2008, and in meetings after that, the self-professed businessman had portrayed himself as having a close relationship with Najib, who was the finance minister and deputy prime minister at that time.

During her cross-examination by deputy public prosecutor (DPP) Ahmad Akram Gharib, Tengku Rahimah was asked what Jho Low had represented to her about Najib.

Akram: Was there at any time, in your meetings with Jho Low, that he impressed upon you that he had a good relationship with Najib?

Tengku Rahimah: Yes, there was.

She also said that in their subsequent meetings, Jho Low had a calm demeanour and was highly intelligent. This led her to introduce Jho Low to Sultan Mizan, her brother.

Previously, testifying in his own defence in this trial, Najib had said that that the inception of 1Malaysia Development Berhad’s (1MDB) former iteration, the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA), was the brainchild of Sultan Mizan and Jho Low, and it was brought to the Cabinet in 2008, when Najib was deputy prime minister under Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s prime ministership.

Najib is currently facing 25 counts of money laundering and abuse of power for alleged misappropriation of 1MDB money.

He is on trial for four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.28 billion of 1MDB's funds.

The trial continues tomorrow before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah.

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