KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 12 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak today said that the late Saudi ruler, King Abdullah, had promised to support him in continuing to lead a “moderate” Malaysia. He told the High Court that he believed the Saudi king had sent the donations through Saudi Arabia’s Finance Ministry to his personal AmIslamic account.
In the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) trial, where RM2 billion of the government-owned firm’s funds allegedly entered Najib’s AmIslamic accounts, the former prime minister claimed that the money in his accounts was from Saudi Arabia and was not illegal.
Najib said Low Taek Jho — who was alleged to be Najib’s “mirror image” in 1MDB affairs and is now a fugitive — had told him that King Abdullah “was very impressed with Malaysia’s ability to practise moderation as prescribed by Islam and its fair treatment of Muslims and non-Muslims” and the Saudi ruler would give him the highest Saudi civilian award.
Najib said Low had told him this before his official visit to Saudi Arabia in January 2010, and that he did receive the award — the King Abdulaziz Order of Merit (1st Class) — from King Abdullah during the official visit.
During that same January 2010 visit, Najib said King Abdullah complimented Malaysia and its government’s ability to maintain peace in a multicultural society, and had asked him to ensure Malaysia would continue to be free of militant and deviant Islamic teachings.
“In this regard, King Abdullah personally assured me that he would provide me with support to enable me to carry on leading the country as a shining example of how Islam should be practised,” he said.
Najib said Low had in mid-2010 told him that personal donations from King Abdullah were being arranged.
“From the discussion — where King Abdullah assured me that he would provide support to enable me to continue leading the country as a moderate Muslim nation — it was clear that this support would be forthcoming,” he said, adding that he had understood the purported donation was for political purposes and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives.
Najib said he did not doubt Low when the latter later said the donations were on their way, due to Low’s “close relationship” with “King Abdullah and members of the royal family which I observed myself”.
Najib said he had in 2011 received a total of US$99,999,976 (equivalent to RM304,329,765.73) in his AmIslamic account, insisting that all these were from Saudi Arabia and were King Abdullah’s donations.
Najib said this matched a letter from Prince Saud Abdulaziz Majid Al Saud — whom he alleged to be King Abdullah’s authorised representative — which promised a gift of US$100 million for him to use as he wanted.
The US$99 million which Najib referred to came in the form of four transactions (US$10 million on February 24, 2011 and US$10 million on June 14, 2011 both from Prince Faisal bin Turki Bandar Al Saud, over US$49 million on August 19, 2011 and over US$29 million on November 25, 2011 both from “Ministry of Finance Riyadh”).
While saying that the US$99 million deposited into his AmIslamic account “did not originate directly from King Abdullah’s personal account”, Najib cited the two transfers totalling over RM243 million (RM243,699,926.32) from Saudi’s Finance Ministry as basis for saying that his belief that he was receiving political donation from the Saudi king was not “baseless”.
Contrasting Malaysia’s system of government of “constitutional monarchy” with Saudi’s “absolute monarchy”, Najib explained why the Saudi finance ministry’s money transfers could be considered the Saudi king’s donations.
“Yang Arif, I think the fundamental difference is that the Saudi structure, the head or apex of the entire system is the monarch and is an absolute monarch, and therefore anything that comes from governmental institutions must have his blessings, because he’s the absolute monarch in that system.
“And I don’t think anyone would have done anything that would be contrary to the wishes of King Abdullah because the punishments in Saudi are very severe, as we know,” he said.
“In an absolute monarchy — because there are different kinds of monarchies, this is not a constitutional monarchy, but an absolute monarchy — like Saudi Arabia, where the king holds the ultimate authority, it is reasonable for me to believe that if King Abdullah directed the Ministry of Finance to disburse funds on his behalf as a donation, the ministry would carry out his request.
“Therefore, to suggest that these funds are not directly from King Abdullah’s personal account but from the Ministry of Finance Riyadh, is nonsensical, because, to me, they reflect the intentions and authority of King Abdullah himself,” he said.
Najib said he had also in 2012 received a total RM311 million (RM311,122,245.94) from the joint account of Prince Faisal and Prince Saud, adding that it is reasonable for him to believe that King Abdullah directed them to pay those donations to him.
“Given the substantial funds received from reputable sources such as the Ministry of Finance Riyadh, Prince Faisal and Prince Saud, it is clear that I had no reason to believe that the funds in my 9694 AmIslamic account would be from an unlawful source.
“It would be unimaginable for me to even harbour an inch of suspicion that funds coming from such distinguished entities in Saudi Arabia could be illicit,” he said.
Asked by his lawyer Wan Azwan Aiman Wan Wan Fakhruddin, Najib said the money transfers from the joint bank account of the two Saudi princes did not trigger any suspicion “because they are distinguished members of the royal family, both of them.
“So I cannot imagine anything other than being a legitimate source of funds would have occurred. I think anyone receiving this SWIFT document would have come to that same conclusion,” he said, referring to banking documents as SWIFT documents.
Out of these transactions in 2011 and 2012 referred to by Najib, only the first two transactions of US$10 million each are part of the first power abuse charge he is facing in the 1MDB trial.
Najib said he had also relied on four purported donation letters as evidence that the money which entered his bank accounts were indeed donations from Saudi Arabia.
“The letters explicitly confirmed the source and purpose of the funds, and I had no reason to doubt their authenticity. Based on this understanding, I genuinely believed that the funds were lawful contributions from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This belief guided my actions in utilising the funds in accordance with their stated purpose,” he said.
The prosecution had previously in December 2022 insisted that Najib will not be able to use these four letters to defend himself over the RM2.27 billion, as other courts had found the letters to be fabricated or fake.
Najib’s 1MDB trial — involving 25 criminal charges — before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah resumes this afternoon.
