1MDB Trial | MACC investigating officer Nur Aida Arifin testified that former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak claimed that a government-to-government (G-to-G) meeting took place on a yacht in relation to a joint venture between 1MDB and Petrosaudi International (PSI).
Amidst active objections by lead defence Muhammad Shafee Abdullah that the 49th prosecution witness was giving her mere opinion, Aida told the Kuala Lumpur High Court about a meeting between PSI and Najib as well as businessperson Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) on a yacht during the then prime minister’s family holiday in 2009.
The witness testified that Najib claimed that this meeting - which also involved PSI representatives “Prince Turki” and “Tarik Obaid” - was a G-to-G discussion.
Aida noted that this initial holiday by Najib’s family that morphed into a diplomatic meeting did not go through any valid and formal discussion channel and resulted in massive losses to Malaysia.
She noted that the meeting did not involve any high-ranking local government officers, and the administration was then forced to incur loans via the issuing of a full government guarantee for the 1MDB-PSI venture.
“Najib as prime minister should have known that the highest level G-to-G discussion such as this requires valid diplomatic channels and not one that originates from an informal discussion on a mere yacht,” Aida told judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah during today's RM2.27 billion 1MDB corruption trial against the former prime minister.
Aida testified that this is further seen in Najib allegedly having relied on Low and then 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi to force the sovereign wealth fund's board of directors to abide by their directions regarding the 1MDB-PSI joint venture.
“The constantly given excuse is safeguarding this G-to-G relationship between the governments of Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.
“On this excuse, many decisions and approvals were made that did not side with 1MDB and Malaysia,” Aida said.
She added that there was even doubt on the appointment of one Edward L Morse as the valuer of PSI's assets, due to the asset valuation report being prepared in a mere eight days when the assets in question are of extremely high value - between US$2.7 billion to US$4.5 billion.
Najib is on trial over four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.27 billion from 1MDB, a sovereign wealth fund fully owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MOF Inc).
For the four abuse of power charges, the former Pekan MP is alleged to have committed the offences at AmIslamic Bank Bhd’s Jalan Raja Chulan branch in Bukit Ceylon, Kuala Lumpur, between Feb 24, 2011, and Dec 19, 2014.
On the 21 money laundering counts, Najib is purported to have committed the offences at the same bank between March 22, 2013, and Aug 30, 2013.
‘Can’t control how media reports testimony’
Meanwhile, deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib said that the prosecution cannot control how the media reports Aida's testimony.
The prosecutor was replying to a complaint made by Shafee today about how the press reported Aida's testimony earlier this week.
The defence counsel was complaining about the way certain media houses reported Aida's testimony regarding information received in a report lodged by an MACC officer regarding an allegation that the US$681 million that went into Najib's account in 2013 was utilised to sway votes in the run-up to the 13th general election.
Shafee claimed the various media reports were erroneous as US$620 million of the same amount, later in 2013, went out of Najib's account, thus negating the allegation involving votes.
In response, Akram told the court that prosecutors cannot control how the media prepare their articles because the press was merely reporting on what Aida read out from her written witness statement.
However, the prosecutor agreed to make some amendments to Aida's 95-page witness statement to remove certain parts that Najib's defence team objected to.
The trial will resume on Monday next week. - Mkini
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