1MDB: MACC officer denies 'improvising' testimony to back Najib

Summary

• MACC officer Fikri Abdul Rahim denies the prosecution's assertion that he 'improvised' his testimony in backing ex-premier Najib Abdul Razak's defence against the RM2.27b 1MDB abuse of power and money laundering trial.

• The defence witness was countering prosecutors' contention that he ‘added on’ to his testimony today compared to the testimony he gave for Najib's defence in the SRC graft case that saw the ex-finance minister convicted.

1MDB TRIAL | An MACC officer has denied “improvising” his testimony backing Najib Abdul Razak's defence against the RM2.27 billion 1MDB abuse of power and money laundering trial.

However, defence witness Fikri Ab Rahim admitted that he did “add on” to his testimony today from the one he previously gave in a separate RM42 million graft case against the former prime minister.

Before the High Court in Putrajaya this afternoon, Fikri told the court this while under cross-examination by deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib.

The DPP was pointing out that Fikri's testimony in the 1MDB trial had additional details missing from the one he gave during the SRC criminal trial, which in the end saw Najib convicted.

Akram noted that SRC trial judge Nazlan Ghazali's grounds of judgment disregarded Fikri's defence testimony.

Akram: Your testimony today is an improvement (tambahbaik) from the SRC (testimony).

Fikri: I agree, it was 'added to' but I do not know whether it’s good or bad.

Akram: You agree that today there was additional (details) then what was in the SRC (trial)?

Fikri: Yes.

Akram: You agree that among the reasons for the addition today was that during the SRC (trial), there was a verdict commenting that your testimony then was not enough. Hence, today (you) wanted to cover what Nazlan mentioned in the SRC judgment.

Fikri: No.

Akram: It is better today as you went through the SRC (trial) and read Nazlan's grounds of judgment and today you improvised accordingly.

Fikri: Disagree.

Delegation to Saudi

During the SRC trial, Fikri testified being part of a delegation comprising members of the MACC and the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) flying to Saudi Arabia in November 2015 to investigate the authenticity of four alleged letters from Saudi royalty promising Najib donations.

Back then, he testified that he found out through an MACC investigating officer and recording officer that Prince Saud Abdul Aziz, through his attorney Abdullah al-Koman, signed an MACC statement in Riyadh, where the attorney's signed statement "confirmed" the four Arab donation letters for Najib.

The witness testified that he saw Eric Tan Kim Loon at the Saudi palace, who seemed to be on good terms with the Saudi group there.

Tan is an alleged associate of fugitive businessperson Low Taek Jho (Jho Low), whom Malaysian authorities are still trying to track down to assist investigation into the 1MDB affair.

Among Najib's line of defence was that he had no knowledge of involvement in wrongdoing at 1MDB, and that all embezzlement at the troubled sovereign wealth fund was solely masterminded by Low and members of its management.

Akram's intense questioning today followed on the heels of Fikri's 1MDB testimony, which contained more details compared to when he testified during the SRC trial.

Fikri's 1MDB testimony covered similar ground to what he testified in SRC, whereby he claimed the Malaysian delegation went to an alleged Saudi royalty palace in Riyadh on Nov 29, 2015, and met three alleged Arab princes there.

No passport copy allowed

The defence witness today testified that the delegation was shown a copy of a passport belonging to the alleged Prince Saud who signed the four donation letters issued to Najib.

Fikri told the court that the delegation was not allowed to make a copy of Prince Saud's passport due to one of the other alleged princes claiming that this would amount to a violation of diplomatic immunity.

He said he was not present in the same room in the Saudi palace where an MACC recording officer took down the statement of Prince Saud's lawyer Abdullah.

The MACC officer told the criminal court that while he was overall satisfied with the outcome of the meeting with the Saudi side, another member of the Malaysian delegation - then MACC deputy chief commissioner of investigation Azam Baki - had directed him to continue investigation into the four alleged Arab donation letters.

Azam is now MACC chief commissioner.

5-page statement in 20 minutes

When Akram contended it was illogical for the MACC statement recording session with Abdullah to only last 20 minutes, Fikri disagreed as the recording officer was a fast typist.

The DPP was questioning how the recording of the five-page statement only took 20 minutes, taking into account how detailed the particulars were and Fikri's claim that Abdullah kept going in and out of the palace room to allegedly take calls from Prince Saud.

Fikri conceded under Akram's grilling that the witness was unsure whether Abdullah was actually taking calls from Prince Saud.

Fikri also agreed with the prosecutor that the statement recorded from Abdullah was not the actual statement of Prince Saud who was alleged to have written the four Arab donation letters.

Prima facie case

On Oct 30, the criminal court ordered Najib to enter his defence over four abuses of power and 21 money laundering charges involving RM2.27 billion from 1MDB.

Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah ruled that the prosecution succeeded in establishing a prima facie (answerable) case against Najib due to the strength of some 50 witness testimonies.

Between early December last year and late January this year, Najib spent 26 days on the witness stand trying to raise reasonable doubt in the prosecution's case.

The accused has been serving a six-year jail sentence since August 2022 over a separate criminal case involving abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money laundering involving RM42 million of funds from SRC International, a former subsidiary of 1MDB.

Defence counsel Shafee Abdullah acted for Najib.

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