Witness changed statement to MACC three times, Najib's trial hears

NAJIB TRIAL | Former SRC International director Suboh Mohd Yassin (above) had given three contradictory statements to the MACC in 2015 and 2018, the Kuala Lumpur High Court heard today.

The court was told that Suboh had in November 2015 told the MACC that he was the one who signed 17 banking instructions to AmIslamic Bank for money transfers between SRC International, its subsidiary Gandingan Mentari Sdn Bhd and Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd between 2014 and 2015.

Suboh was also one of the directors of Gandingan Mentari while Ihsan Perdana was SRC International's corporate social responsibility (CSR) partner. He was being cross-examined by lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah at Najib Abdul Razak's SRC Internation corruption trial.

Shafee told the court that Suboh had changed this admission when his statements were taken by the MACC again on May 28 and 30 last year.

Reading from the MACC's records of Suboh's statements, Shafee said the witness had in May 2018 denied having signed any of the documents nor having any knowledge about any of the transactions.

Suboh had then told the MACC he was changing his admission to one of denial as he did not have the opportunity to check the details of the signatures when his statement was taken by the MACC in Abu Dhabi on Nov 27, 2015.

Shafee said Suboh then made another U-turn when giving another round of statements to the MACC on Aug 13 and 15 last year, this time making a similar admission as he did in his 2015 statements - that all of the banking documents were signed by him in person.

Confronted by Shafee (above) over the contradicting statements to the MACC, Suboh told the court that he might have been able to give a better answer to the MACC if he had been shown comparisons of the signatures, similar to what Shafee did in court yesterday.

Shafee then used a projector to show slides of the bank transaction documents in question, arguing that Suboh's signatures had been allegedly forged to authorise transactions that ran into millions of ringgit.

Shafee: So you are saying if you were shown (the signatures) like the way I showed you, you could have given a better answer (then)?

Suboh: Yes.

Shafee: Now you are clear that these transfer documents, from SRC to Gandingan Mentari and then from Gandingan Mentari to Ihsan Perdana, were never signed by you?

Suboh: Yes.

Shafee: Now you accept with this demonstration, you accept that you could not have signed (the documents)?

Suboh: Yes, especially the same (identical) signatures (on scanned copies of banking instructions).

Before Shafee wrapped up his cross-examination, he elicited an agreement from Suboh that his statements to the MACC on May 28 and 30, 2018, showed that he had not signed off on the bank transfers.

"I put it to you that in the first two statements you made on May 28 and 30 (to the MACC following the 14th general election on May 9, 2018), you had stated the whole truth, that none of the (bank transfer documents) bore your signature as you were never involved in the transfer of funds," Shafee asserted.

"Yes," replied Suboh calmly.

Proceedings resume tomorrow before Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali. - mkini