MACC officer testifying for Najib denies ex-PM helped with promotions

Summary

• MACC officer Fikri Abdul Rahim denies that former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak was behind his fast-tracked promotion in the anti-graft agency.

• The defence witness testifies during Najib's 1MDB trial that it was the MACC and its then chief commissioner Abu Kassim Mohamed who promoted him based on his performance.

1MDB TRIAL | An MACC officer testifying on behalf of Najib Abdul Razak's defence has denied that his promotion was fast-tracked due to the ex-premier.

Defence witness Fikri Ab Rahim told the High Court in Putrajaya today that his promotion to Jusa-C in 2017 was due to the MACC’s evaluation of his performance.

While being re-examined by defence counsel Shafee Abdullah, Fikri - who was with the MACC since 2004 - rubbished the prosecution's insinuations that his rising star status was linked to his conduct in a trip to Saudi Arabia in November 2015.

The trip involving officers from the MACC and Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) was to ascertain the truth behind four alleged Arab donation letters that backed Najib's claim that Middle Eastern royalty promised him donations.

Shafee: The prosecutors raised claims about your promotion.

Fikri: I disagree as my promotion was determined by MACC and (its then chief commissioner) Abu Kassim (Mohamed).

During the investigation (into 1MDB in 2015), I was at Grade 54, from Grade 41 (straight) to 54 was fast, but it was not straight away to Jusa-C. It was only in 2017 that I was promoted to Jusa-C.

I do not see Najib as playing a role in my promotion, only the MACC and Abu Kassim were involved in my promotion.

Conduct questioned

In the civil service, promotion from Grade 41 to 54 amounted to skipping four grades, and it was understood that further promotion to Jusa-C is usually due to exceptional performance.

Fikri was a witness during the separate RM42 million SRC corruption trial against Najib.

The accused was prime minister from 2009 to 2018. Abu Kassim's service ended in August 2016.

During the 1MDB trial on Thursday last week, deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib cross-examined Fikri over the way that he conducted investigations into the four alleged Arab letters while in Riyadh in 2015.

Prosecutors heavily questioned how Fikri conducted the investigation when MACC officers tried to confirm the legitimacy of the alleged Arab letters by meeting the alleged Arab prince who signed the documents.

The DPP also contended that Fikri improvised his testimony in the 1MDB trial when compared to his past testimony in the SRC trial, to which the defence witness disagreed.

Fikri previously testified that the MACC investigating officer and recording officer took down the statement of a lawyer acting on behalf of the alleged Arab prince, rather than directly taking down the royalty member's own statement.

He had also said it was due to the Arab prince being protected by diplomatic immunity.

Najib's defence is that he was neither involved nor had knowledge of wrongdoing at 1MDB, and that embezzlement at the troubled sovereign wealth fund is solely masterminded by fugitive businessperson Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) and other members of its management.

The former finance minister also contended that he believed that money that flowed in and out of his Malaysian bank account was a donation pursuant to a 2010 promise by Saudi monarch King Abdullah. The ruler passed away in 2015 after a decade of rule.

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 the graft case involving RM42 million from SRC, a former subsidiary of 1MDB.

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