PUTRAJAYA (Oct 21): Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak took aim at the prosecution’s key witnesses in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd-Tanore (1MDB-Tanore) trial, saying that several former 1MDB officials, including former chief executive officers Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi and Mohd Hazem Abdul Rahman, former general counsel Jasmine Loo Ai Swan, former chief financial officer Azmi Tahir, and Najib’s former special officer Datuk Amhari Effendi Nazaruddin, were the ones who carried out the misconduct but were never brought to justice.
Najib said the witnesses had committed acts such as transferring US$700 million and US$330 million to unverified accounts, diverting US$1.6 billion, and receiving funds linked to fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho (Jho Low).
“The successful bidder for the Picasso painting and recipient of the RM100 million was Jasmine,” he said.
“The individual who defied the King and transferred the US$700 million and a further US$330 million to Jho Low was 1MDB’s CEO, Shahrol.
“Hazem, 1MDB’s subsequent CEO, was the one who paid US$175 million to a bogus company.
“The US$1.6 billion in 1MDB’s funds, ironically, was diverted by Azmi, 1MDB’s chief financial officer.
“The public officer who received a total of US$1 million from Low was my own officer, Amhari.”
Najib said all of them were treated as credible witnesses against him, despite what he described as their “confirmed misconduct”.
“Surprise, surprise — despite such stark revelation and confirmed misconduct, none of them has been charged,” he said.
“It’s as if breaking the law has no consequences.”
The former prime minister, who is currently serving his prison sentence for the SRC International Sdn Bhd case, told judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah that it appeared that the court and the prosecution had placed complete trust in those witnesses.
“Despite them going against the board’s directions, taking unauthorised decisions, making unauthorised payments to the tune of billions, and accepting illicit rewards, this court could not find any reason to doubt them or their credibility,” he said.
“For as long as they could testify against me, nothing they could ever say, admit to, or even do, however questionable, shocking, or unbelievable, could affect their trustworthiness.”
Najib argued that the prosecution’s witnesses were “selected not for what they had to say, but for what they were willing to say”.
“It would also become apparent that the witnesses called by the defence were not selected by the prosecution, not because they had nothing to say, but rather because of what they would say,” he said.
Najib said this selective approach was symptomatic of a biased and politically driven prosecution that relied on testimony without substance or corroborating evidence.
“It was not at all surprising that I was consequently charged and later called to enter my defence for the alleged execution of documents which were never produced in court,” he said.
“No, the documents were not lost; it was simply because the witnesses said so, and automatically, I had executed them. It matters not that the prosecution later admitted that no such documents existed, for so long as the prosecution witnesses said ‘Be,’ and it is.”
Najib stressed that unlike those testifying against him, he had no offshore accounts or hidden entities.
“Unlike the prosecution’s witnesses testifying against me, I do not have any offshore accounts,” he said.
“Unlike Jasmine Loo or Amhari, I did not register any bank accounts through an offshore shell company; instead, I opened a bank account in my own name at a local bank in my country. Even the governor of Bank Negara [Malaysia] was immediately informed of the account’s purpose — to receive donations from the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
He said the donations were spent transparently on political and social welfare causes, with all payments made by cheque and fully accounted for.
“No million-dollar painting or swanky property was purchased from the funds I received,” he said.
“It would be shocking to learn that, despite the media frenzy over the US$681 million, the entire sum has not even been proved to be traceable to 1MDB.”
Najib further claimed that he even returned US$620 million of the donation to the source account after it went unused.
“Before returning the unused donation, I wrote to the (then-)governor of Bank Negara, Tan Sri (Dr) Zeti (Akhtar Aziz), seeking Bank Negara’s approval for the return,” he said.
“I would probably be the only alleged ‘corrupt politician’ who returns the so-called gratification that he worked so hard to obtain — and probably the first in recorded history to have announced his ‘ill-gotten’ money to the governor of Bank Negara, of all people.”
The hearing before Sequerah continues, with both sides expected to complete oral submissions in nine days, before a decision is delivered in the coming months.