A letter containing minute notes by former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak served as the trigger for the review of company Profound Radiance Sdn Bhd (PRSB) after it’s appointment as the operator of a one-stop centre (OSC) for visa applications in Bangladesh was cancelled in 2015.
This was claimed by former Home Ministry immigration affairs division secretary Shahril Ismail (photo, above) in the graft trial of former deputy premier Ahmad Zahid Hamidi at the Kuala Lumpur High Court today.
During cross-examination by the defence counsel Ahmad Zaidi Zainal, the 37th witness testified that Zahid referred the former to a November 2015 letter of appeal from PRSB to Najib. On it was minutes allegedly by Najib to Zahid which stated: “Agreed to give chance if no wrongdoing was committed.”
Zaidi: These (minutes by Najib) triggered the whole scenario, your whole testimony today?
Shahril: Yes.
After the reevaluation, PRSB was appointed operators of the migrant visa OSCs in Pakistan and Nepal, effective June 15, 2016.
In his witness statement, Shahril claimed PRSB’s role as the operator for Malaysian visa applications in Bangladesh was cancelled, effective Nov 11, 2015, as the company did not carry out any operations there.
PRSB director Azlan Shah Jaffril has then written an appeal to Najib on Nov 12, that year, on which Najib’s minutes were written. Two further appeal letters were written to Zahid in 2016, one of them minuted by Zahid himself.
“I do not know how PRSB could have obtained the minuted letters. There were minutes written by Zahid to me stating ‘please discuss with me and refer to the minutes by PM (prime minister) and explain the true situation to me’,” the witness statement read.
But during cross-examination by Zaidi, the witness admitted all procedures had been adhered to in the later appointment of PRSB in Pakistan and Nepal. He added Zahid had not issued any specific instructions for approval which contravened procedures.
Cheques 'handed to DPM' on three occasions
Meanwhile, Azlan, who later took the stand as the 38th witness, later admitted his issued three cheques, valued at RM2million, as “political donation to TPM (deputy prime minister)” and as “charity”.
He claimed to have handed the cheques, made out to law firm Lewis & Co, personally to Zahid in three separate meetings - at the deputy prime minister’s office on Aug 2, 2017, for a RM300,000 cheque worth, at the Home Ministry on Jan 4, 2018 (RM1 million) and at Zahid’s residence on Feb 13, 2018 (RM700,000).
“Zahid never asked me for any contributions, and I gave the cheque as a contribution from Profound Radiance Sdn Bhd.
“[...] I handed the contribution to Zahid as he was home minister at the time as well as deputy prime minister responsible for seeking funds for the coming general election,” he said in his witness statement.
He added that upon receiving the PRSB OSC appointment cancellation letter on Nov 11, 2015, he obtained the premier’s minute of approval in the Nov 12, 2015, letter and from the home minister in the January and February 2016 letters.
PRSB later received its appointment letter for the Pakistan and Nepal OSC from the Home Ministry on June 27, 2016.
[More to follow] - Mkini
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