KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 3 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak today denied any hidden agenda or conspiracy related to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) during his 2009 high tea with a Saudi prince on a yacht in France.
While testifying in his own defence in the 1MDB trial, Najib recounted the events that led to the afternoon meeting with Prince Turki.
Najib said he was already on holiday with his family in south France in August 2009, when he received an invitation from Low Taek Jho — the Malaysian fugitive better known as Jho Low — on behalf of Kuwait’s prince and Abu Dhabi royal member Sheikh Hamed Zayed Al Nahyan.
The invitation was for Najib and his family to join them aboard their yacht, the RM Elegance. Najib stated that Low had relayed the invitation to his special officer, Datuk Wan Ahmad Shihab Wan Ismail.
Najib said he accepted the invitation as it might have been impolite to decline and noted that such social interactions could open opportunities for Malaysia.
Najib said he was not surprised that Low had conveyed the invitation as he had established close ties with Middle Eastern royal families. He added that he felt honoured to receive such a generous invitation from such distinguished individuals.
He also clarified that Low was not present on the RM Elegance yacht during the trip.
Najib said those on the vacation with him were his wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, their children Nor Ashman, Nooryana Najwa, Riza Aziz, as well as his friend Tan Sri Bustari Yusuf and Bustari's children.
“You can immediately visualise from the membership of my group, it was meant to be a private holiday to begin with,” he said.
On his second or third day of this vacation, Najib said RM Elegance’s captain told him that Prince Turki had invited him and his family for afternoon tea on the prince’s nearby yacht.
“I was quite surprised by the invitation, as Prince Turki was the favourite son of King Abdullah, the reigning King of Saudi Arabia at the time. I graciously accepted the invitation,” he said, adding that he thought that his hosts might have told the Saudi prince about him and his family being on RM Elegance.
Greeted by Prince Turki and Tarek Obaid on the other yacht, Najib said he saw that Low was already in the yacht’s main living room.
While initially surprised with Low’s presence on the other yacht, Najib said this was not entirely unexpected and was plausible since Low had close ties with royalty in the Middle East.
But when asked to address claims that the afternoon tea session was where he had plotted a joint venture between 1MDB and PetroSaudi International Limited as a front to siphon off billions from 1MDB, Najib denied this claim as he said it was an informal meeting with those three men.
“It was in fact the first time I had met both Prince Turki and Tarek Obaid. The idea that we could have been discussing some sort of sinister plan is not only ridiculous but entirely unfounded.
“If there had been any hidden agenda or nefarious intent, I certainly would not have allowed photographs to be taken showing us together in such an innocuous setting. The suggestion that we were plotting anything underhanded while my family and friends were present is absurd and rather unnatural,” he said.
Previously, Wan Shihab had confirmed that he had taken group photographs at the yacht on Najib’s instructions. One such group photograph was identified in court as featuring Najib, Low, Tarek and Prince Turki.
Confirming that it was an impromptu invitation, Najib said this was an afternoon tea and not an actual formal meeting: “I met Prince Turki for the first time ever, first time, so how could I be brazen enough to hatch such a nefarious plot when you meet a person for the first time?”
“It’s just unthinkable that anyone would do something like that,” he said, adding that his family members and Bustari were also present during the tea session with Prince Turki, Tarek and Low.
Najib said he never had phone conversations with Prince Turki and Tarek before the tea session, saying: “No, how could I, I don’t know them before.”
Najib disagreed that his yacht meeting was for government-to-government (G2G) discussions or joint venture deals, saying: “When you are on holiday, you get invited to tea, I didn’t think anything wrong for me to accept that invitation.
“Surely when you meet someone for the first time and with the family, you are not going to talk about business. So it never crossed my mind at all to consider that tea as a G2G.
“It was never G2G, how can it be G2G, then again to begin with, Prince Turki never held any formal government position, he is the son of the King yes. Of course, later he became governor of Riyadh, at that time he was not,” Najib told Shafee.
Among other things, Najib said there was no discussion of a proposed joint venture between 1MDB and PetroSaudi during the afternoon tea, and that it would have been inappropriate to discuss any business matters on his first meeting with the Saudi prince.
Najib also said he did not recall having discussions with Saudi ruler King Abdullah in July 2009 and that he had not visited Saudi Arabia in July 2009, as claimed in an August 28, 2009 letter from Prince Turki addressed to Najib.
Najib said he had never seen this August 2009 letter and had only known about it during the 1MDB trial.
Najib’s 1MDB trial before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah resumes tomorrow.
