KUALA LUMPUR, June 21 — A voice in four audio recordings that were played in the High Court for the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) trial today “sounds like” former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, former Treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah testified.
Irwan said this while testifying as the 42nd prosecution witness in Najib's trial, where RM2.28 billion of 1MDB funds were alleged to have entered the former finance minister's personal bank accounts.
In the four voice recordings which the High Court today allowed to be played, the first audio clip featured a voice saying “Your Highness” and stating that “we are experiencing a bit of dark cloud by the DoJ”.
The same voice was also heard as saying “That's why Your Highness, it's important for us to resolve this impasse with respect to 1MDB and IPIC as soon as possible so that we could have closure as soon as possible, because it's embarrassing both countries, embarrassing Malaysia, embarrassing UAE, as well you know personalities who are close to you” and also wishing for a solution to be found as soon as possible.
This voice was also heard trying to arrange a meeting with the other person which was called “Your Highness”.
Asked about this first audio clip, Irwan said he was not present during the conversation, but could hear two voices and that one of it was a voice that “anybody can identify”.
“Datuk Seri Najib, it sounds like him,” he told deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib.
“The Highness sounds like an Arab guy, the other one is prime minister of Malaysia lah,” Irwan said, reiterating that he could only say that “sounds like” Najib as he was not present at the conversation.
The second audio recording played in court featured two voices, with one of the voices referring to the other as “Your Highness” and making a “personal request” for his son regarding the latter's movie and with the latter being under a bit of pressure in the US and asking for a loan agreement to be signed.
The same voice said that he did not want his son to be a victim when he was unaware about the source of the money he received and that it came as a shock when attempts were made to connect it with “1MDB money”.
The same voice also said the matter cannot be delayed as “we don't want the DoJ to suddenly move against him”.
For this audio recording, Irwan again identified one of the two voices as sounding like Najib as he was not present during the conversation.
For the third recording of a conversation which he was not present at, Irwan identified one of the two voices as resembling Najib's voice and the other voice as being unknown to him.
In the fourth recording played out in court today, Irwan said one voice sounded like Najib, while the other voice sounded like Najib's former aide Datuk Amhari Efendi Nazaruddin. Irwan said he was also not present at this conversation.
Back in November 2022, the prosecution had started playing the first audio clip which carried mentions of “Your Highness”, “1MDB”, “IPIC”, “UAE” and “Malaysia” for Irwan to hear in court.
Irwan had at that time identified one of the voices as sounding like Najib's voice.
But Najib's lead defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah had at that time objected to the audio recording being admitted in court as evidence, making various arguments such as that it was from “illegal taping”.
The late Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram, who was leading the prosecution then, had argued that the audio clips should be admitted in court as evidence to rebut Najib's claim that he did not know the money that came into his account were from 1MDB and that he had thought the money was an “Arab donation”.
After five days last year where Shafee and Sri Ram argued on whether the four audio clips can be admitted in the 1MDB trial as evidence, judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah today gave his ruling after examining all the major points that were argued.
“In the upshot, I rule that the tape recordings and transcripts are admissible in evidence,” the judge said when allowing the four audio clips to be played in court.
After identifying all four audio clips as having a voice resembling Najib's voice, Irwan reiterated that he could not “100 per cent” say the voice was Najib's as he was not present at the conversations, but added that he recognised it as Najib’s.
Asked by Shafee if he would be able to say if the recordings were “deepfake” recordings, Irwan said he could not as he is not a voice expert.
Deepfake refers to the use of artificial intelligence to imitate a person's voice.
Asked by Shafee, Irwan said he was unsure if there were other parts that formed the beginning or end of the conversations in the audio clips, and agreed he did not know the context of the conversations as he was not present there.
Deputy public prosecutor Nadia Mohd Izhar also asked if Najib had taken any action against any 1MDB officers during Irwan's tenure as the then Treasury secretary-general (KSP), after he had told Najib about the arrogance of 1MDB officers who were not cooperative.
Irwan then said he still remembered clearly during a meeting at Najib's house, that he had told Najib that those responsible or arrogant officers should be taken action against, as the Public Accounts Committee's report had mentioned one of the 1MDB officers' name – Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi – for action to be taken.
“But I told him as KSP, I cannot take action against; this is MACC and police who should take action. He just kept quiet, that is the thing, he just kept quiet. He's a nice man like I said, he just kept quiet,” Irwan replied.
Irwan completed his testimony today, and Najib's 1MDB trial is set to resume on July 7 with the 44th prosecution witness Kevin Michael Swampillai to continue testifying.
Najib's wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, whose passport was temporarily released by the Court of Appeal last Thursday from June 15 to July 7 to travel to Singapore, was seen attending the 1MDB trial proceedings today.
