Najib: Nothing to hide, I'm transparent

1MDB TRIAL | Former premier Najib Abdul Razak testified in the Kuala Lumpur High Court this morning that he has nothing to hide and has always been transparent about funds deposited into his account.

Rebutting the RM2.27 billion 1MDB abuse of power and money laundering case, the former finance minister pointed out that he had informed AmBank and expected the commercial bank to notify Bank Negara Malaysia.

Najib explained he was informed that he would receive a donation from Saudi Arabia's late King Abdullah, and he notified AmBank's then-managing director Cheah Tek Kuang when he opened an account with the commercial bank.

Najib noted he was a politically exposed person and had requested Cheah to notify Bank Negara's then-governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz.

"I had nothing to hide. The funds were spent in accordance with the trust reposed on me by King Abdullah, for political and CSR (corporate social responsibility) purposes.

"I meticulously recorded all my expenditures by issuing cheques from the AmIslamic account to ensure transparency and proper documentation," Najib told trial judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah this morning.

The former premier contended he had neither knowledge nor involvement in wrongdoing at 1MDB, and that the embezzlement there was solely masterminded by fugitive Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) and other members of the management of the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.

Najib said he found it troubling that the prosecution brushed aside clear evidence of the complicity of 1MDB's former CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, the fund's former general counsel Jasmine Loo, and others in cahoots with Low to misappropriate monies from the government-owned entity.

"To me, this feels deeply unsettling and personal, as it suggests that their primary role in the case is not to seek the truth but to distort it, provide false testimony, and implicate me in what seems to be a politically motivated prosecution aimed at solely securing my conviction.

"This is not a genuine pursuit of truth or justice. Instead, it is a calculated effort to silence me as a political opponent and secure the continued dominance of my rivals in power," Najib lamented.

Ordered to enter defence

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.

Sequerah ruled that the prosecution succeeded in establishing a prima facie (answerable) case against Najib over the Minister of Finance Incorporated’s (MOF Inc) wholly owned company.

The 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.

Najib is 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.

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