NAJIB TRIAL | Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak did not lodge a police report when the RM42 million transfer into his bank accounts became known in order to avoid interfering with ongoing investigations at the time, lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said today.
The veteran lawyer also claimed that his client wanted to avoid falling into a trap as what allegedly happened to PKR president Anwar Ibrahim.
Speaking to reporters at the Kuala Lumpur High Court premises, Shafee reiterated the defence's stance that Najib only came to know about the money transfer at about the same time the rest of the public got wind of it in 2015.
Shafee said at the time, an investigation was already in full swing as seen in the Bank Negara raid on AmBank’s Jalan Raja Chulan branch in Kuala Lumpur on July 6 that year.
“Najib already knew by then an investigation had been undertaken, why lodge a police report?
“He does not want to fall in a trap like what happened to Anwar Ibrahim when he lodged a report about Ummi Hafilda Ali.
“Then an investigation had been undertaken and he (Anwar) was charged with interfering in the investigation.
“Najib did the right thing by not lodging a police report as the investigation was already going on, so not to interfere,” Shafee said.
Ummi is the younger sister of Economics Affairs Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali. She had testified against Anwar during his first sodomy trial in 1998 as well as at his abuse of power trial in 2000.
Anwar was arrested in 1998 for allegedly interfering in police investigations into the sodomy and abuse of power allegations made against him.
Oral submissions
Shafee was speaking to the media at the end of the second day of oral submissions by both the prosecution and defence in Najib’s abuse of power, criminal breach of trust (CBT) and money laundering case involving RM42 million from SRC International.
The two-day oral submissions which began on Tuesday are the last stage of the trial before High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali makes his decision on whether to order Najib to enter his defence. Nazlan has set Nov 11 to deliver his verdict on this.
Najib is facing a total of seven criminal charges related to the RM42 million allegedly misappropriated from SRC International. He is charged with one count of abuse of power, three counts of CBT and three counts of money-laundering.
Najib’s co-defence counsel Harvinderjit Singh, who was also present, reiterated that Najib did not lodge a report in order to avoid pressuring the police.
The lawyer pointed out that this was reflected in Najib’s affidavit which was used in his defamation suit against former transport minister and ex-MCA president Ling Liong Sik.
It was reported that Najib filed the suit against Ling in October 2015 on allegations made in relation to 1MDB funds. However, the then BN chairperson and Umno president withdrew the legal action in May last year.
“The affidavit said 'I do not want to make a statement to the public because I do not want to affect the investigation being undertaken'.
“We are not talking about a small investigation. The MACC, the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC), the central bank (Bank Negara) and the police, everyone was investigating the account (where the RM42 million flowed in and out).
“In this affidavit, he was saying he did not make a statement to the press as he did not want to interfere in the investigation. If he made a police report, they would say the prime minister was pressuring the police,” said Harvinderjit. - Mkini
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