Probe Najadi’s murder, says Kit Siang

Hussein Ahmad Najadi reported large sums of money entering Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s bank accounts with AmBank.

KUALA LUMPUR: DAP elder statesman Lim Kit Siang has called on Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar to re-open investigations into the murder of AmBank founder Hussein Ahmad Najadi, 75, and investigate as well the failure of Bank Negara and the police to act on reports that he had lodged on Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s personal accounts with AmBank private banking services.

The next step is for Attorney-General Gani Patail to charge and prosecute Najib for committing an offence in Malaysia, he added in citing a Wall Street Journal report last Friday which carried allegations against the Prime Minister which mentioned his personal bank accounts with AmBank.

Najadi was shot dead in broad daylight in the centre of Kuala Lumpur in Lorong Ceylon in Bukit Bintang on July 29, 2013 a day after he lodged a police report on matters that he had earlier reported to Bank Negara.

The investigations, said Lim who is also DAP Parliamentary Leader and Gelang Patah MP, will be to ascertain whether the murder had any links with the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal.

“There are reasons to re-open the file on the murder given the new information that has emerged in the wake of the Wall Street Journal report last Friday,” said Lim.

Hussein had reported to Bank Negara in March 2013 about significant amounts of money being deposited into Najib’s personal accounts, added Lim. “Subsequently, he reported about the withdrawals of significant amounts of money from these bank accounts.”

“Najadi lodged a police report on the same matters on 28 July 2013 when no action was taken by Bank Negara.”

Lim was commenting on the situation faced by Najib and his government since the WSJ report last Friday.

It’s described by the Chinese expression “草木皆兵” – which literally means “every bush and tree looks like an enemy soldier”, explained Lim. “The Najib Government is so nervous, suspicious, insecure and panicky about its position that it is virtually ‘jumping at shadows’.”

Gani Patail publicly admitted that the government probe had produced documents about the deposit of USD700 million into the Prime Minister’s personal banking accounts.

As a result, said Lim, any questioning of the WSJ report would be a questioning of the government’s own probe into the 1MDB by the special task force comprising Bank Negara Malaysia, the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC), the Royal Malaysian Police and the Attorney-General’s Chambers.

He reminded that Tuesday was the fifth day of the grave WSJ allegation in its report last Friday of Prime Ministerial misconduct i.e. committing the criminal offence of embezzlement. “Malaysian investigators found almost USD700 million (RM2.6 billion) of 1MDB’s funds (were) deposited into Najib’s personal bank accounts”.

Najib has failed to categorically deny the WSJ allegations, said Lim.

He noted that the people were asking why the Prime Minister finds it so difficult to put to rest once and for all the allegations of Prime Ministerial misconduct and the grave offence of embezzlement alleged in the WSJ report. “All he needs to do is to categorically deny that he ever had personal accounts in his name in AmBank or that some USD700 million (RM2.6 billion) had been deposited into his bank accounts in 2013.”

Instead, fumed Lim, the Prime Minister went around the whole world, declaring that he would never “betray the trust of the people” and that he had never “taken” public funds for personal gain. “He scrupulously and studiously avoided the question for the fifth day of whether he has or ever had personal accounts in AmBank which received deposits of some USD700 million (RM2.6 billion) in 2013.”

Najib’s threat to sue the WSJ was a most extraordinary story. “He’s still considering whether to sue WSJ and had referred to his lawyers who will advise him on the next course of action in the next few days,” said Lim. “The WSJ meanwhile has defended its reporting and has vowed to vigorously defend any legal suit filed against it.”

If Najib had been defamed by the WSJ report, continued Lim, he should immediately instruct his lawyers to institute legal proceedings instead of seeking legal advice. “What legal advice does Najib want, unless there is room for dispute whether the WSJ report had actually defamed him or not?”