Ex-1MDB CEO says he was briefed by Rahman Dahlan before PAC grilling

NAJIB TRIAL | Former 1MDB chief executive Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi said he was coached by fugitive businessperson Low Taek Jho who also arranged for him to meet with BN members within the Public Accounts Committee before he was actually questioned by the panel on the beleaguered state-owned fund in 2010.

Among the BN members within the PAC, he met was then Kota Belud MP Abdul Rahman Dahlan, Shahrol told the Kuala Lumpur High Court during former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak's 1MDB graft trial today.

"Similarly, I was given talking points by Jho on the information to be covered during the PAC meeting.

"He had also arranged for me to meet with one or two BN members of the PAC before the actual meeting.

"I met Rahman Dahlan, who was a member of the committee at the time and we talked about the kind of questions the PAC would be asking," he said under examination by lead prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram.

Gopal then asked if the questions discussed with Rahman were actually the ones asked when he finally faced the PAC, to which Shahrol replied: "Approximately, yes".

Asked why he was briefed before the PAC meeting, Shahrol said the objective was to downplay Najib and Low's role in 1MDB.

"Number one is to minimise or to downplay Najib and Jho Low's involvement in the decision-making in SRC International and 1MDB.

"And number two is (to say) all these was a political attack against the prime minister," he said.

Abdul Rahman was appointed at the urban well-being, housing and local government minister in 2013.

Shahrol said he was grilled by the PAC for the second time in 2015 when the 1MDB issue blew up and was likewise briefed ahead, but added that were also post-PAC meetings.

In one of the post-PAC meetings, Shahrol said he was briefed by then PAC chairperson Hasan Arifin who is the Rompin MP on what will eventually go into the committee's report on 1MDB.

Najib is facing 25 charges of money laundering and abuse of power over the alleged misappropriation of RM2.28 billion from 1MDB.

The trial is before Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah. - Mkini