Shafee prepared to debate with authors of 'Hollywood book' on 1MDB

Senior lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah is prepared to debate with the authors of the Billion Dollar Whale regarding what his client, former premier Najib Abdul Razak, knew of the funds in his personal bank accounts.

Responding to its authors' claim that he might have not read the entire book, Shafee said he read it three times and noted excerpts where Najib was said to have been misled by figures like fugitive businessperson Jho Low and the Arab donor.

"I can sit down with the authors and debate with them because I can cite pages and paragraphs...in some paragraphs, it is said Najib was misled and in other parts, it is concluded that Najib may know about the slush fund," he told reporters at the Kuala Lumpur court complex today.

Shafee said the authors, Wall Street Journal (WSJ) journalists Tom Wright and Bradley Hope, were not lawyers, and therefore do not know the difference in the legal context.

"They do not understand that what he (Najib) is saying is not 'I do not know the money came in', but what he is saying is 'I do not know the money is from illegal proceeds'. There is a world of difference," he added.

Shafee said if the authors chose to be “naive or uneducated”, the pair would remain as such.

"After all, this is another Hollywood book. You cannot expect truth from a book that is intended to be a movie," he added.

Shafee also spoke at length about the prosecution submitting documents to the defence in the form of a CD Rom, which the lawyer claimed is a first.

However, it is understood that in the prosecution's case against former Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng's graft case, a CD Rom was also used to deliver the documents. - Mkini