Najib, Rosmah deny purchasing 'pink diamond'
Former premier Najib Abdul Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor have never purchased a pink diamond worth US$23 million, said their lawyers.
In a statement, Rosmah's legal counsels Geethan Ram Vincent and K Kumaraendran said neither Najib nor Rosmah had received the said diamond as claimed by police's anti-money laundering investigation team...
Former premier Najib Abdul Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor have never purchased a pink diamond worth US$23 million, said their lawyers.
In a statement, Rosmah's legal counsels Geethan Ram Vincent and K Kumaraendran said neither Najib nor Rosmah had received the said diamond as claimed by police's anti-money laundering investigation team.
"We refer to the statement by police this morning released shortly before the polls opened for the Rantau by-election that referred to our client Datin Sri Rosmah Mansor.
"We would like to state that neither Dato' Seri Najib Razak nor Datin Sri Rosmah Mansor had ever purchased the said pink diamond.
"Neither Dato' Seri Najib Razak nor Datin Sri Rosmah Mansor had ever received the said pink diamond.
"As the police had also confirmed, the said diamond was not in the possession of the both Dato' Seri Najib Razak and Datin Sri Rosmah Mansor," said the statement.
More than one pink diamond jewellery
This morning, the police said there is evidence to show that a pink diamond worth US$23 million was purchased using 1MDB funds.
In a statement, Khalil Azlan Chik, who heads Bukit Aman's anti-money laundering investigation team, also revealed the existence of a money trail to show that the item was purchased from a jeweller based in New York.
Khalil mentioned that the statement was issued following Rosmah's denial of purchasing the pink diamond.
However, the statement did not indicate if this referred to a pink diamond ring or pink diamond pendant.
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) had alleged that the pendant was purchased by fugitive financier Jho Low for Rosmah, whom it referred to as the wife of Malaysian Official 1 (MO1).
On Monday, Deputy Finance Minister Amiruddin Hamzah told the Dewan Rakyat that the sales agent who brought in a pink diamond and other jewellery into Malaysia for the wife of a VVIP had declared the valuables with the Royal Malaysian Customs Department.
Amiruddin was also reported of saying that the agent declared the valuables with the department when he left the country with them.
Although the deputy minister did not specify the item, it is believed that he was referring to the ring.
Following this statement by Amiruddin, Rosmah expressed regret that Malaysians fell for the slander surrounding the matter.
In an interview with Al-Jazeera last year, Najib said that the 22-carat pink diamond pendant was purchased by a Saudi prince for Rosmah, but she never received it.
The DOJ claimed the item was purchased using US$620 million which Najib had returned to his "Saudi donor," which was actually a company controlled by Low's proxy Eric Tan Kim Loong.
Malaysiakini has sent text messages to Khalil to clarify which item his statement referred to.
Are you sure you want to delete this comment?
This action cannot be undone.