KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 3 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak today said he had never known of Malaysian fugitive Low Taek Jho’s private house at Jalan Kia Peng in Kuala Lumpur, and that he had never gone there.

Testifying in his own trial over 1Malaysia Development Berhad’s (1MDB) RM2 billion funds, Najib instead claimed that 1MDB officers and his own ex-aide who visited Low’s house were conspiring with Low on 1MDB. Low is better known as Jho Low.

"For the record, I have never been to Jho Low’s residence nor aware of it at Jalan Kia Peng, yet it appears that multiple prosecution witnesses from 1MDB’s management — Shahrol, Jasmine, Azmi, and Hazem — and my former officer, Amhari, have visited his residence frequently.

"This speaks volumes of the conspiracy of these individuals with Jho Low,” he told the High Court today.

Najib was referring to 1MDB’s former CEOs Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi and Mohd Hazem Abd Rahman, 1MDB’s then in-house lawyer Jasmine Loo, 1MDB’s then chief financial officer Azmi Tahir, and Najib’s then own special officer Datuk Amhari Efendi Nazaruddin.

Asked by his lead defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, Najib said he first found out during the 1MDB trial that Low had met with these individuals at the latter’s house.

Najib confirmed with Shafee that he was not given a BlackBerry phone by Low to enable secret communication with Low and these other individuals.

Shafee: So you don’t have a BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) to communicate secretly within this group?

Najib: No.

Previously, Shahrol had told the 1MDB trial that Low had communicated all major decisions about 1MDB in the form of talking points or action plan from Low’s email address dealrainmain1@gmail.com to Shahrol’s personal email address or through BBM.

Shahrol had previously also said that meetings would also be held at Low’s Jalan Kia Peng house if necessary for Low to provide further explanations on what he needed to do regarding 1MDB matters, and that Low had always said such instructions had received Naijb’s blessings.

Today, Najib said the alleged meetings with Low should have been held at a formal setting at 1MDB’s office or Najib’s office at the PMO, if Low was genuinely acting with Najib’s authority.

Najib said Shahrol should "never have entertained major decisions communicated by Jho Low, an individual who held no role or authority in 1MDB”.

Najib also criticised Shahrol’s choice to follow Low’s instructions to use his personal email account, saying: "If Datuk Shahrol truly believed Jho Low’s instructions were legitimate and confidential, he should have used his official 1MDB email account rather than risking the use of an unauthorised personal account.”

Najib said Shahrol should have copied him on those emails and preserved those emails as proof of Najib’s alleged involvement or to demonstrate he was following through Najib’s instructions, if he believed Low’s instructions had Najib’s endorsement, but said: "He never did.”

Najib said he was unaware of the alleged "work in silo” environment at 1MDB and that he would not have condoned it, saying: "Secrecy fosters corruption within any institution and encourages fraudulent behaviour in any corporation.”

He claimed that the prosecution witnesses’ court testimony showed there was no "work in silo” arrangement, but that they allegedly showed "a coordinated criminal scheme carried out without my knowledge” and with 1MDB officers purportedly having a "deliberate and collaborative effort” on 1MDB transactions.

Najib claimed there was a coordinated scheme orchestrated by Low alone "which was without my knowledge or involvement”.

Najib’s 1MDB trial resumes this afternoon before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah.