1MDB: Prosecution served Najib's 525-page witness statement

Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak has filed his 525-page witness statement for the defence stage trial of his RM2.27 billion 1MDB abuse of power and money laundering case.

Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib confirmed that the former premier’s legal team from Shafee & Co served via email to the prosecution a copy of the witness statement.

“The prosecution was served with Najib’s witness statement via email around 5.48pm. It is two volumes totalling 525 pages,” the prosecutor told Malaysiakini.

Najib is set to take the witness stand next Monday to rebut the prima facie ruling made against him.

On Oct 30, the Kuala Lumpur High Court ordered Najib to enter his defence over four abuse of power and 21 money laundering charges involving RM2.27 billion of funds from 1MDB.

Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah ruled that the prosecution succeeded in establishing a prima facie (answerable) case against the former finance minister over the company that is wholly owned by Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOF Inc).

The criminal court judge ruled that Najib had to answer the charges due to the strength of the various 50 witness testimonies during the prosecution stage of proceedings that lasted six years since the trial began in 2019. The accused was first charged in 2018.

No motive for witnesses to frame Najib

Sequerah ruled that the prosecution witnesses’ oral evidence showed proximity between the accused and fugitive businessperson Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) in the affairs of 1MDB.

The judge said the witnesses - such as former 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, the fund’s former general counsel Jasmine Loo, and Najib’s former special officer Amhari Efendi Nazaruddin - showed they interacted with Low.

Sequerah cited Amhari’s testimony that the witness was asked by Najib to go on a secret project to China and meet Low there in order to bail out 1MDB.

The judge referred to Amhari’s testimony that the witness’s travel cost was reimbursed by the accused.

“I find the testimonies on the role of the accused are consistent and not coincidental on the involvement of the accused with Low.

“(There is) No motive for these witnesses to frame the accused who was prime minister and finance minister.”

The judge stated that the accused stood at the apex of the decision-making process.

“It would be suicide for these witnesses to frame him given his position at the time,” Sequerah ruled.

Prosecutors claimed that Low’s actions at 1MDB were at the behest of Najib.

However, the former Pekan MP’s defence team contended that the accused had no knowledge of wrongdoing at the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, and the embezzlement there was solely perpetrated by Low and members of its management.

Najib is currently serving a six-year jail sentence over a separate abuse of power case involving RM42 million of funds from SRC International, a former subsidiary of 1MDB.

He is also facing an ongoing criminal trial for the RM27 million SRC money laundering case.

Previously, Najib was acquitted in another criminal case involving 1MDB's audit report case.

He was also this week granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA) in the RM6.6 billion International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) criminal breach of trust (CBT) case.

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1MDB: Full summary of judge's ruling ordering Najib to enter defence