Syed Saddiq insists 'H' is Najib's right-hand man

Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) Youth chief Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman insisted that the man identified as "H" is a known right-hand man of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

“He is a well-known right-hand man of the prime minister. I think that is what matters the most.

“Stop playing on technicalities,” Syed Saddiq said when contacted by Malaysiakini today.

He was responding to Najib’s aide, Tengku Sarifuddin Tengku Ahmad, who said that there was no individual befitting the description of "H," as stated by Syed Saddiq, working for the Prime Minister’s Office.

However, when pressed on whether the man is officially employed by the Prime Minister’s Office, Syed Saddiq said he would let the police investigate the matter.

He did add that "H" is a “businessman who never comes out in the open”.

Tengku Sarifuddin’s denial is a familiar tactic, he said, as it is similar to how entrepreneur Jho Low distanced himself from 1MDB in the early days of the scandal.

“This is almost the same excuse they gave to deflect responsibility of 1MDB when it involved Jho Low.

“Saying ‘Oh, Jho Low has no official role in 1MDB’ but in reality, he played a pivotal role in the decision-making process,” Syed Saddiq said.

Though Low had initially downplayed his role in the troubled state fund 1MDB, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) had explicitly named him back in 2016, when it filed its first civil forfeiture lawsuit over money allegedly misappropriated from 1MDB.

Syed Saddiq had claimed previously that an aide to the prime minister, whom he referred to only as “H”, offered him RM5 million in cash to quit the party and further his studies at Oxford University.

He had also defied “H”, whom he alleged was the mastermind of the attempts to “buy” him, to come forward and deny the accusations.- Mkini