PUTRAJAYA (Feb 13): The prosecution in Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia Development Bhd-Tanore (1MDB) trial has called out one of his witnesses, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officer Fikri Ab Rahim, for “improvising” his testimony in the trial regarding whether he had indeed seen three Saudi Arabian princes during a trip to the country to investigate the 1MDB scandal.

Fikri took the witness stand on Thursday to testify, as he was part of the MACC team that went to Saudi Arabia in November 2015 to interview the members of the Saudi royal family, to verify Najib’s claim that they had sent RM2.28 billion in donations to Najib via his personal bank accounts for his political campaign.

The three princes in question are Prince Saud Abdulaziz bin Majed bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (Prince Saud), Prince Faisal bin Turki bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (Prince Faisal) and Prince Turki bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (Prince Turki).

Fikri said that during that visit, he had seen the three princes from a distance when he entered the Riyadh palace grounds with the Malaysian investigation delegation, but could only identify Prince Turki from the three.

He said he saw all three princes in the palace, but could not identify Prince Faisal and Prince Saud. Instead, he could only identify Prince Turki from the three, as he had seen a picture of the prince from a police officer who was doing a “profile” on the prince.

When asked by deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib how he knew that the three he saw were princes, Fikri said that he had seen Prince Turki, whom he claimed was “world famous” and knew his picture, and assumed that the other two with him were the remaining two princes.

Akram then suggested to him that all he had to go by was one picture of Turki and nothing else. To which Fikri agreed.

He then said that although they did not get to record the statements of all three princes, the MACC team did manage to record a statement from Prince Saud’s agent and lawyer, Abdullah Al Koman, who had shown up on the prince’s behalf.

Akram during cross-examination of the witness asked Fikri about obtaining Prince Saud’s passport from Al Koman for the investigating team to see, and suggested that this meeting was a complete sham and that Fikri was “improvising” his testimony.

Akram: So, you saw Turki and Faisal and Saud, you only recognised Turki, and didn’t know who the other two were. Next step is Saud’s passport is given to you by Al Koman, the other two did not give. You saw it?

Fikri: Yes, I held it for 30 minutes. So, I was able to verify his face from the passport and the picture I had.

Fikri also testified during Najib’s SRC International trial in 2020 where he had previously said he never saw the three princes.

In 2020, Fikri had said that when he got there, he was not able to correctly identify the three Saudi princes as two of them were nowhere to be seen and did not show their passports to the investigation team.

He had said that he did not know if the princes were at the palace, as they were hard to identify.

“The three of them could not be identified, because we could not see their passports,” Fikri had admitted in 2020 during the SRC trial.

Akram then asked Fikri if he was improvising his testimony to fit it in with the SRC International judgment.

Akram: You testified in [the] SRC [International trial] as a defence witness; you said almost the same thing there as you did here, but here you added more details than what you had said at SRC. So, I am suggesting to you that you improvised and changed what happened in your SRC testimony.

Fikri: I don’t agree.

Akram: Are you saying it is the same?

Fikri: I am not saying it is the same, I am adding more details from memory.

Akram: The testimony you gave today has more details than your SRC testimony, and you agree with me that there are additions today because you have read the grounds of judgment in SRC and improvised your testimony accordingly?

Fikri: I disagree.

Fikri said that he went to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, between Nov 27 and Nov 29 in 2015, together with the director of the National Revenue Recovery Enforcement Team at the Attorney General’s Chambers Tan Sri Dzulkifli Ahmad, MACC deputy chief commissioner Datuk Azam Baki, and MACC officers Mohd Hafaz Nazar and Mohd Nasharudin Amir, to investigate.

In the SRC judgment, judge Datuk Nazlan Mohd Ghazali had held that Fikri’s evidence was inadmissible as the statement which Al Koman had given to the MACC was not tendered as evidence in the SRC trial. And neither has this same statement been tendered as evidence in this 1MDB-Tanore trial before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah.

Fikri also added that Eric Tan Kim Loong — reportedly a close acquaintance of fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) — had been at the palace, although Fikri did not know why.

Previous reports have said Tan was Jho Low’s front man in Tanore Finance Corporation, the outfit that purportedly made the US$681 million transfer to Najib’s accounts under the guise of donations.

There were also other lawyers from Malaysia present in Riyadh: Rishwant Singh, former deputy public prosecutor Francis Ng Aik Guan, and MIC legal adviser Selva Mookiah, although the reason for their presence at this meeting was unknown.

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 on Tuesday, Feb 18.

Read also:
MACC was unable to identify the three Saudi princes
Najib's SRC Trial: The mystery of the three lawyers and a prince in Riyadh