PUTRAJAYA: The four “Arab donation” letters relied on by former prime minister Najib Razak in his defence in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd corruption case were “forged”, the High Court ruled today.
Delivering the verdict, Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah said the defence failed to adduce evidence to persuade the court of Najib’s defence that the funds he received were “Arab donations”.
He pointed to the testimony of two witnesses – former Malaysia ambassador to Saudi Arabia Syed Omar Al-Saggaf and former religious affairs minister Jamil Khir Baharom – who were with Najib in the late King Abdullah’s palace sometime in January 2010.
Both Jamil and Syed Omar previously told the court that Najib informed them that King Abdullah wanted to provide financial “aid” or contributions.
“They only heard what the accused told them after he met the Saudi monarch, making their testimonies inconclusive. There is nothing to support this contention by the defence,” Sequerah said, adding the letters were never produced in their original form before the court.
He said Najib failed to verify that the money actually came from the late monarch’s family and noted that the former premier had merely “anchored his belief on a wider circle of the royal family”.
Sequerah said there was no evidence that the funds were meant to be transferred in instalments, observing that the funds went through third-party private companies, including Vista Equity, Blackstone and Tanore – entities controlled by fugitive Eric Tan – which did not support the defence team’s donation claim.
He said former 1MDB legal counsel Jasmine Loo also testified that she saw fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho instruct his aide, Kee Kok Thiam, to “draft” one of the donation letters during a meeting at a London hotel and that she saw the letter on Kee’s laptop.
MACC’s trip preplanned to complete the ‘donor’ story, court finds
At the end of 2015, a team of Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers and a former deputy public prosecutor went to Riyadh to investigate the veracity of the four letters said to have been signed and sent by one “Prince Saud Abdulaziz Al-Saud” to Najib, dated between Feb 1, 2011 and June 1, 2014.
Sequerah said the trip was “pre-planned” as no proper statement was recorded from the “prince”.
He noted that investigating and recording officers Nasharudin Amir and Hafaz Nazar said they were only given a prepared statement by Saud’s legal representative, Abdullah Al Koman, and were unable to ask him further questions.
“Nasharudin said he was not able to see Saud’s passport. There was no proper profiling of the individuals who were there.
“He even said he was not satisfied (during the recording statement process),” Sequerah said, adding the trip was an attempt to “complete the story” about the donation.
Sequerah adjourned court for Friday prayers and it will resume at 3pm. He indicated that he would take another three hours to complete reading his verdict.
Najib, 72, faces four charges of using his position to obtain RM2.3 billion in bribes from 1MDB funds through the AmIslamic Bank Berhad branch on Jalan Raja Chulan between Feb 24, 2011, and Dec 19, 2014.
These charges were brought under Section 23(1) of the MACC Act, which carries up to 20 years imprisonment and a fine of either five times the amount of the bribe or RM10,000, whichever is higher, upon conviction.
He is also accused of committing an additional 21 counts of money laundering at the same bank between March 22, 2013, and Aug 30, 2013.
These charges were framed under Section 4(1)(a) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001, which carries a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment, a fine of up to RM5 million, or both, upon conviction.
