KUALA LUMPUR – The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigating officer told the high court today that she did not question Datuk Seri Najib Razak if he instructed the former CEO of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) to transfer US$700 million to Good Star Ltd, owned by fugitive businessman Jho Low.
MACC senior superintendent Nur Aida Arifin, 37, said that she felt it was not important to ask the former prime minister about the transaction.
However, she said she asked Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi about it.
She was responding to a cross-examination by Najib’s counsel, Wan Azwan Aiman Wan Fakhruddin regarding the transaction in September 2009.
“Did you ask Najib if the instruction to transfer 70% of the US$1 billion investment sum came from him?” Wan Azwan asked.
“I had only asked Shahrol Azral. I didn’t ask Najib. I felt it wasn’t important,” she replied.
Nur Aida disagreed with the counsel’s suggestion that Shahrol Azral was Jho Low’s “alter ego” and said that Shahrol Azral believed all instructions from Jho Low were from Najib.
The prosecution’s 49th witness also admitted that Najib did not instruct Shahrol Azral and the company’s former business development executive director Casey Tang Keng Chee to conceal the US$700 million transaction from the board of directors.
In 2022, former finance minister II Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Mohamad Hanadzlah testified that Najib kept quiet, was relaxed and did not react to nor take any action over the US$700 million transaction.
Najib, 70, faces four charges of using his position to obtain bribes amounting to RM2.3 billion of 1MDB funds and 21 charges of money laundering involving the same amount.
The trial before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues. – April 24, 2024