Late Saudi king's half-brother didn't dispute royal donation: Najib

Summary:

• Najib claims Saudi royal donation was not disputed.

• King Salman’s actions showed no displeasure towards Najib.

• Court ordered Najib to defend against 1MDB charges.

1MDB TRIAL | Najib Abdul Razak testified that the half-brother of late Saudi monarch King Abdullah did not deny there was a royal donation to the then-Malaysian prime minister.

Najib today told the Kuala Lumpur High Court that King Salman did not raise the issue when the latter paid an official visit to Malaysia in 2017.

In refuting prosecutors’ claim that he had concocted a fake donation promise story to rebut the RM2.27 billion 1MDB abuse of power and money laundering case, Najib said King Salman (above, left) did not mention the donation even though they closely interacted with each other during the visit.

“During his official visit to Malaysia in 2017, he did not raise anything on the donation of King Abdullah.

“It was obvious he did not during a private meeting with him, even in a car with him, I sat with him, I selfie with him, but he did not raise anything on the donation from King Abdullah.

“He could have, but he did not,” Najib testified, pointing out that the prosecution’s claim is an insult to the House of Saud as King Abdullah indeed promised him a donation in 2010.

Difficult, unprecedented

The accused said he was still allowed by King Salman to enter the holy Kaabah in Mecca as well as Prophet Muhammad’s tomb - something Najib described as very difficult and almost unprecedented.

“If King Salman was displeased with me, would he have visited Malaysia or allowed Saudi Arabian-owned petrol company Aramco to invest in Pengerang, Johor?

“Would he have allowed me to enter Kaabah or Prophet Muhammad’s tomb? His action indicated he is pleased with Malaysia.

“For him to visit Malaysia is a huge acknowledgement of the strong ties we enjoy with the Saudi government even after King Abdullah’s time,” Najib said.

The trial before judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah resumes on Jan 6 next year.

Answerable case

On Oct 30, the criminal 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.

Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib prosecuted.

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