Yacht outing was afternoon tea, not 1MDB embezzlement plot - Najib

1MDB TRIAL | Najib Abdul Razak has testified that his family yacht outing on the southern waters of France in 2009 was for afternoon tea, not to hatch a nefarious plot to embezzle funds from 1MDB.

The former prime minister was rubbishing the prosecution's contention that a plot to siphon billions of ringgit from 1MDB was hatched during the meeting with Prince Turki and Tarek Obaid - two co-founders of Petrosaudi International Limited (PSI) - and fugitive businessperson Low Taek Jho (Jho Low).

"I categorically deny the accusations made by the prosecution witnesses. The meeting I had with Prince Turki, Tarek, and Low during the afternoon tea was entirely informal and was nothing like what had been suggested.

"It was, in fact, the first time I had met both Prince Turki and Tarek. The idea that we could have been discussing some sort of sinister plan is not only ridiculous but entirely unfounded.

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"If there had been any hidden agenda or nefarious intent, I certainly would not have allowed photographs to be taken showing us together in such an innocuous setting,” he said.

Najib Abdul Razak on the yacht with PSI co-founders Tarek Obaid (left) and Prince Turki

“The suggestion that we were plotting anything underhanded while my family and friends were present is absurd and rather unnatural," Najib testified during the RM2.27 billion 1MDB abuse of power and money laundering trial this afternoon.

The prosecution contended that Low's actions at 1MDB were at the behest of Najib, pointing to a well-known photograph showing the fugitive with the former premier and his family during the holiday in the waters of France.

Najib with his family and friends on the yacht

However, the former Pekan MP contended that he did not know of wrongdoing at the sovereign wealth fund. Low and members of its management solely perpetrated the embezzlement there.

Ordered to enter defence

On Oct 30, the Kuala Lumpur High Court ordered Najib to enter his defence over four abuse of power and 21 money laundering charges involving RM2.27 billion of funds from 1MDB.

Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah ruled that the prosecution succeeded in establishing a prima facie (answerable) case against Najib over the Minister of Finance Incorporated’s (MOF Inc) wholly owned company.

The judge ruled that Najib had to answer the charges due to the strength of the various 50 witness testimonies during the prosecution stage of proceedings that lasted six years since the trial began in 2019. The accused was first charged in 2018.

Najib is serving a six-year jail sentence over a separate abuse of power case involving RM42 million of funds from SRC International, a former subsidiary of 1MDB.

He is also facing an ongoing criminal trial for the RM27 million SRC money laundering case.

Previously, Najib was acquitted in another criminal case involving 1MDB’s audit report.

He was also granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal on Nov 27 in the RM6.6 billion International Petroleum Investment Company criminal breach of trust case. - Mkini