KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 21 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s former special officer Datuk Amhari Efendi Nazaruddin is corrupt as he had allegedly accepted bribes from Malaysian fugitive Low Taek Jho, Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah claimed in the High Court today.
Shafee made this claim while trying to discredit Amhari’s court testimony regarding Najib’s alleged involvement in setting up 1Malaysia Development Berhad’s (1MDB) predecessor Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA).
TIA had previously in 2009 obtained the Malaysian government’s guarantee for its borrowing of RM5 billion through an Islamic bond, and TIA was later renamed to 1MDB.
In the 1MDB trial, Najib is accused of having misappropriated RM2.27 billion of funds belonging to 1MDB. He faces four power abuse charges and 21 money-laundering charges.
Shafee today argued that Amhari’s claim of having attended a discussion for the setting up of TIA was not backed by evidence, and also urged the High Court to reject the prosecution’s suggestion that Najib was involved in the formation of TIA from the start.
Shafee said this was because Amhari — who was the eighth prosecution witness in the 1MDB trial — is allegedly a “corrupt public official”.
While Amhari had said he had accepted a US$200,000 loan from Low as a bridging loan for a property purchase, Shafee claimed this was “utter nonsense because we know that’s a gift to him as a bribe”.
Shafee claimed that Amhari had every reason to inculpate or put the blame on Najib, as he would be able to save his credibility as a witness if his wrongdoings could be attributed to his superior’s instructions instead of his alleged personal corrupt motive.
“Amhari came as a witness with a programme in his head,” Shafee said, likening it to “almost like a chip” had entered Amhari.
“He has to say all this because he has been taking bribe from Jho Low.
“I might as well say this, not only Amhari, but every single one of the prosecution witnesses, perhaps with the exception of Tan Sri Bakke Salleh. Bakke I must say is substantively an honest person. But he has been drilled to say certain things to implicate Datuk Seri Najib, I will say that and I will prove it because there is evidence to that effect,” Shafee claimed.
Shafee was attacking Amhari’s credibility as he wanted to argue that the prosecution had failed to prove the first power abuse charge against Najib in the 1MDB trial.
In that charge, Najib was accused of having abused his multiple positions — finance minister, prime minister, and 1MDB’s board of advisers’ chairman — to get gratification of RM60.6 million for himself.
The first part or first limb of this charge is that Najib had on April 1, 2009 obtained the Cabinet’s consent for the government guarantee by presenting a Finance Ministry memorandum to the Cabinet.
Shafee argued that Najib had presented the memorandum as part of his official work as a finance minister, and did not do so for a personal interest to obtain gratification.
Shafee said the High Court would have to consider if this was a situation where Najib was just doing his official work and there were other people in TIA and 1MDB who conspired to hijack 1MDB’s money, instead of whether this was a situation of Najib having hatched a conspiracy to form TIA to eventually “hijack” TIA into 1MDB when he becomes prime minister to raise more money and hijack the money.
Shafee reminded the High Court of Najib’s defence that he “genuinely believed that whatever money came into his account came through Saudi, because genuinely separate transactions came from Saudi”.
Throughout this trial, Najib’s defence through his lawyers is that he had believed RM2.2 billion of the 1MBD-linked funds which entered his bank accounts were donations from Saudi Arabia’s royalty.
“I want to conclude Amhari was never ever able to implicate Datuk Seri Najib in terms of Limb 1, Charge number one,” Shafee concluded.
Shafee had today also claimed that prosecution witnesses had confirmed that the idea of forming TIA and getting the government to guarantee TIA’s RM5 billion debt did not originate from Najib.
The trial before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah resumes tomorrow morning.
