High Court verdict against Najib revisited

 

It has been four long years since Najib Abdul Razak was charged with abuse of power, money laundering, and criminal breach of trust in the SRC International case.

While his court battle, in this case, climaxed today with the Federal Court sending him to jail for 12 years, the basis of the sentence is rooted in the High Court's July 2020 judgement on the case.

Appeals at both the Court of Appeal and Federal Court are processes by which the defence seeks to overturn the lower court's ruling on technical grounds.

Thus, to put today's verdict into context, Malaysiakini revisits key points from the ruling by trial judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali.

Najib was involved in SRC

Nazlan said Najib's involvement in SRC International began with SRC's letter on Jun 3, 2011, requesting approval for the company to obtain a RM3.95 billion loan from Retirement Fund Incorporated (Kwap).

Eventually, that application was approved, with a reduced amount of RM2 billion. SRC subsequently applied for another RM2 billion loan and this was also approved.

These loans were only approved after the cabinet, chaired by Najib, issued guarantees.

Nazlan also noted Najib headed the government and participated in cabinet meetings which guaranteed RM4 billion in financing to SRC International which “directly” caused the accused to be in a position of access to funds in the company.

Impossible Najib didn't know

Najib claimed he did not know how the RM42 million from SRC ended up in his accounts.

Nazlan, however, said this could not be the case, as the prime minister personally issued several high-value cheques.

“It is incredible for him not wanting to find out about the source of the funds in his accounts which enabled him to issue many personal cheques.

“The three, Azlin (late Azlin Alias, Najib’s former principal private secretary), Jho Low (Low Taek Jho), and Nik Faisal (former SRC CEO Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil) were all on evidence in contact with him on matters related to the accounts.

“This must certainly have included key information such as the remittance of the RM42 million. Merely relying on a ‘sense’ that there were sufficient funds is astonishing,” the judge said.

Further, when Najib was informed the money was from SRC, Nazlan said the former premier made no effort to return the funds on the grounds that investigations were pending.

“This is unconvincing since, given the doubts, he should have at least offered to set RM42 million aside for a possible return to SRC or as the authorities might determine. That did not happen.

“I must stress that, by then, the accused was told that the funds were SRC's.

“At that stage, even if one were to believe his story that he thought the funds in his accounts came from the Arab donations, after being told that it originated from SRC, the accused could no longer maintain that it came from the Arab donations.”

No evidence it was Saudi donation

On the claim Najib believed he received a donation from the Saudi royal family, Nazlan said this too held no water.

“There are many problems with the accused's testimony. First, the accused did not say he directly heard from or was personally informed by the Saudi monarch of the cash donation.

“Secondly, there was no evidence of the accused attempting to verify this intention attributed to King Abdullah with anyone.

“Not with the king directly, nor with any of the government officials who could have easily checked to verify the information for the prime minister.

“There was, thirdly, no evidence if the intended donation would be accompanied by any conditions of use, either. None whatsoever. The accused merely took the word of Jho Low," said the judge.

Nazlan said it was “patently obvious” to the accused that the funds could not have originated from King Abdullah yet no steps were taken to verify the matter.

“The accused’s defence that he honestly believed the funds remitted into his accounts were donations from King Abdullah is nothing but an implausible concoction,” said the judge.

‘Wilful blindness’

The evidence, said Nazlan, showed that Najib did not ensure the RM42 million received were not proceeds of unlawful activity nor that the monies were lawful.

Nazlan said he drew the conclusion that Najib deliberately chose not to question or probe what “plainly” required verification so that he could deny knowledge.

“This is wilful blindness,” said the judge.

Appropriate punishment

Nazlan sentenced Najib to 10 years’ jail on each of the three cases of CBT and each of the three cases of money laundering and 12 years’ jail and a fine of RM210 million in the case of abuse of position.

Najib will serve all charges concurrently, meaning he will spend 12 years in jail at most, with the possibility of an additional five-year sentence if he does not pay the RM210 million fine.

In explaining the sentence, the judge said the jail term and fine were commensurate with the seriousness of the criminal wrongdoing and reflects the degree of public disapproval of the offences.

Factors considered included the loss of RM42 million of public funds, which was instead used for Najib's own benefit, and that the offences were committed while the Pekan MP held the ultimate position of public trust as prime minister.

Najib's jail sentence begins today.

While he can no longer appeal his case in court, he still has options for recourse available to him. - Mkini