KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 3 ± Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak today denied that he had intended in 2009 to pressure government-owned 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) into approving a US$1 billion joint venture with PetroSaudi International Limited (PSI).

Testifying as the first defence witness in his 1MDB trial, Najib explained his September 26, 2009 phone conversation with 1MDB chairman Tan Sri Mohd Bakke Salleh just before the 1MDB board of directors started their meeting on the proposed US$1 billion joint venture.

Najib said he had on that day received a call on his mobile phone from Low Taek Jho — a Malaysian fugitive better known as Jho Low.

Among other things, Najib claimed that Low had asked if he could briefly speak with Bakke before the 1MDB board meeting starts, to share the US$1 billion deal’s context of the alleged "government to government” initiative between Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.

"I agreed, and Jho Low passed the phone to Tan Sri Bakke. In our short exchange, I simply requested Tan Sri Bakke to consider PSI’s proposal, as it was a ‘Government-to-Government’ initiative that the 1MDB board of directors had been reviewing for a while.

"I asked that he and the board proceed with firming up a decision, which I assumed would be after hearing Jho Low’s briefing from PSI’s perspective,” he told the High Court, adding however that he later found out that Low did not actually deliver the briefing at the 1MDB board meeting.

"It is important to clarify that my purpose in this brief exchange was not to direct or pressure the board to participate in the joint venture with PSI,” he said, claiming that he had only intended to encourage Bakke to consider the proposal.

"I categorically deny that my brief exchange with Tan Sri Bakke was meant to compel or even influence the board to participate in a joint venture with PSI,” he again said later.

Najib said he had not asked Bakke to put his phone call on speaker for him to direct the entire 1MDB board on the US$1 billion joint venture.

Najib denied ordering or directing Bakke to convince the 1MDB board to agree to the joint venture, and also denied ordering Bakke to direct the rest of the 1MDB board to do so as if it was a directive from Najib.

Asked again about Low’s request for him to speak with Bakke before the 1MDB board meeting, Najib said: "I did not give it much thought, I just simply agreed to speak with Tan Sri Bakke as Jho Low’s request seemed reasonable. My brief exchange with Tan Sri Bakke was in no way intended to influence him or the Board in their decision-making process.”

Najib claimed that Bakke would have ensured that the 1MDB board meeting minutes on September 26, 2009 recorded any directive by Najib on the joint venture, if he had made such a directive to Bakke.

"However, no such directive is recorded, further supporting that my brief exchange with Tan Sri Bakke did not and was not intended to influence the Board’s decision,” he said.

Najib said it would have been essential for Bakke to ensure the meeting minutes recorded any such directives from Najib, to show that the 1MDB board was acting on Najib’s direct order and also to protect Bakke himself and the 1MDB board by documenting that their decision was based on Najib’s instructions.

"The fact that he did not record this in the minutes indicates that, even in his mind, he did not perceive our brief exchange as a directive or order from me,” Najib claimed, also asserting that Bakke did not tell the High Court that Najib had directed him.

"Assuming Tan Sri Bakke did relay the details of our brief exchange to the board, it’s worth noting that none of the board members felt that the exchange constituted a directive or order and this would suggest that they viewed their decision to resolve that 1MDB enter into the joint venture with PetroSaudi International Limited as independent and agreeable on its own merits, rather than as an instruction from me,” he claimed.

Najib said Bakke who was then Felda chairman saw him from time to time, adding that Bakke could have easily raised any doubts about 1MDB to him but said the latter did not do so.

Previously, Bakke had told the 1MDB trial that the 1MDB board members had agreed not to include Najib’s phone call in the September 26, 2009 meeting minutes to leave his name out of the public domain, and that this had insulated then prime minister Najib.

The prosecution had previously said in this trial that it would prove that US$20 million (over RM60 million), from the US$1 billion joint venture had ended up in Najib’s personal bank account.

Najib’s 1MDB trial before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah resumes tomorrow morning.