Shafee grills Nurul in NFCorp case

The question is whether she attempted to verify the banking information revealed by then PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli.

KUALA LUMPUR: Lembah Pantai MP and PKR vice president Nurul Izzah Anwar, under cross examination in the High Court in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, faced questions on whether she attempted to verify the banking information revealed by then PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli on eight KL Eco City properties.

Nurul reportedly gave a news conference on 7 March, 2012 during which she raised an allegation by Rafizi that loans were taken – for the KL Eco properties — by leveraging a RM71.4 million government deposit placed with Public Bank Berhad.

The trial of the suit between National Feedlot Corporation Sdn Bhd (NFCorp) and its chairman Mohamad Salleh Ismail (Plaintiffs) against Nurul and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (Defendants) entered its second day on Wednesday at the High Court.

Judge Hue Siew Kheng presided.

Mohamad Salleh had testified on Monday that the documents were loan assessment applications to determine forced sale values. Salleh had also testified that the loan offer from Public Bank Berhad for KL Eco City properties had been cancelled on 4 January 2012.

Counsel for the plaintiffs, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, drew the attention of the Court to Nurul’s statement on several points in relation to the purported loans for eight KL Eco City properties.

Shafee questioned why Nurul did not communicate with the plaintiffs before she went to the media.

Similarly, Shafee also asked why Nurul as an MP had not raised her concerns in Parliament in the public interest.

Nurul, he said, had said that funds from NFCorp had been used to purchase the properties but was unable to prove it.

Shafee, in an unrelated move, drew the attention of the Court to Raja Nong Chik, former Federal Territories and Urban Well-being Minister, suing Nurul for a statement allegedly defaming the former over the sale of land in Bukit Kiara.

It was reported, he added, that Nurul had read out a statement saying that she found that there was a mistake in her media statement given on May 4 2013 , just before the 13th General Election.

Salleh said on Monday that Nurul, by her statement made at the 7 March 2012 press conference, had given credence to Rafizi’s allegations and thereby allegedly done irreparable damage to his reputation, credibility and standing. He further claimed that her statement led to the collapse of the businesses of NFCorp and its related companies.

The court was shown two video news clips of the press conference held by the defendants.

“I verily believe that PKR was actively involved and orchestrated this entire fiasco in preparation for the General Election held in 2013,” said Salleh. “Rafizi and indeed the second defendant held nothing back in their pursuit to destroy me and the second plaintiff and its related companies.”

“Nurul ought to know that as a political figure, her words would carry weight with the members of the public and therefore, she ought to have been responsible and accountable.”

Businesses crippled

The press release, the oral media statements and the disclosure of confidential banking information by the defendants had convinced the media to write and publish adversely on the plaintiffs, said Salleh.

“This resulted in immense public outrage arising from the subsequent news reports on the Internet news portals, mainstream newspapers, radio and television, blogs and tweets, all of which alarmed the government and authorities.”

The court was shown a sampling of some of the claimed 110 news stories headlines and news content resulting from the press conference given by the defendants.

This, he claimed, resulted in him being charged in court five days later, his funds and assets seized and frozen by the authorities, and his entire businesses crippled and collapsed.

NFCorp, Salleh said, had taken a RM250 million loan to operate the business and not as claimed by Nurul, “dibiayai sepenuhnya oleh Kerajaan Malaysia.” (fully funded by the Malaysian Government).

At the outset, he continued, the defendants had alleged that the plaintiffs were “in a mess”. “They had taken the Auditor General’s Audit Report of 2010 and misrepresented the information to the media, government and general public.”

Auditor General Ambrin Buang in a press statement and in a letter to NFCorp on 25 January 2012 clarified that the Jabatan Audit Negara did not audit private limited companies unless requested.

Ambrin said NFCorp was never audited by his department. He claimed that he had never said NFCorp was “in a mess”.

The court was shown the key points in the letter.