PUTRAJAYA, Jan 9 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak today insisted that the late Saudi Ruler King Abdullah did actually promise to give him financial aid and political donation, and denied that it was actually Low Taek Jho — now a wanted fugitive — who had told him about the purported promise.

Najib said this while testifying in his corruption and money laundering trial, where over RM2 billion belonging to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) allegedly entered the former prime minister’s personal bank accounts.

Najib has been insisting that all these huge sums of money which he received were instead donations from Saudi Arabia.

Najib claimed that King Abdullah had allegedly promised to give him money during a private meeting between the two of them in Saudi Arabia in 2010, and said no one else from the Malaysian delegation joined this meeting.

Najib today said Low — better known as Jho Low — had only been involved in arranging the meeting with the Saudi Ruler in early 2010, disagreeing that Low was the one who shared the alleged donation promise.

The prosecution’s deputy public prosecutor Kamal Baharin Omar had asked him: “I say to you, actually the statement that there would be financial assistance came from Jho Low, and did not come from the king.”

But Najib replied: “I disagree”.

Najib also disagreed that it was actually Low who had in mid-2010 informed him that the Saudi Ruler wanted to give financial assistance.

Today, Kamal Baharin also quizzed Najib over the different terms he had used to describe King Abdullah’s alleged promise.

In Najib’s written witness statement in the 1MDB trial, he had claimed King Abdullah had in the 2010 meeting conveyed “his intention that he would be supporting me financially”, but also claimed he was personally informed by King Abdullah that the Saudi Ruler “would be making political donations personally to me”.

Najib disagreed with Kamal Baharin’s suggestion that King Abdullah had never specifically said that he would be “supporting financially” during the 2010 meeting.

Asked about his initial description of “supporting financially” and later the term “political donations” in his witness statement, Najib merely said these words’ meaning was “almost the same”.

At another point in his witness statement, Najib had claimed King Abdullah had specifically told him that he would be assisted in the 13th general election to ensure his return as prime minister and that he “understood this to be financial assistance”.

Kamal Baharin said Najib’s use of the word “understood” meant that King Abdullah did not specifically say he would give “financial assistance”, but Najib disagreed.

The four purported Saudi donation letters

In this trial, Najib had used four purported donation letters to support his claim that he believed the money he received were not 1MDB funds.

The four purported letters addressed to Najib were signed off by an alleged Saudi prince — alternately as “Saud Abdulaziz Al-Saud”, “HRH Prince Saud Abdulaziz Al-Saud”, and “Saud Abdulaziz Al Saud”, with all four letters featuring the word “gift”.

The four letters were dated February 1, 2011 with the alleged prince promising a US$100 million “gift” to Najib, November 1, 2011 (US$375 million), March 1, 2013 (US$800 million) and June 1, 2014 (£50 million).

Najib said the “Saud Abdulaziz Majid Al Saud” individual stated in the first purported donation letter’s letterhead was a member of the Saudi royal family

Asked to look at the first purported donation letter, Najib agreed this was in connection to King Abdullah’s donation, but confirmed that the letter did not refer to his private meeting in early 2010 with the Saudi Ruler.

Najib confirmed that the purported Saudi prince did not attend his private meeting with King Abdullah, but disagreed that the Saudi royalty did not know about Najib’s 2010 meeting with King Abdullah.

Looking at all four donation letters which were addressed to Najib’s personal residence at Jalan Langgak Duta in Kuala Lumpur, Najib shook his head slightly when saying he was unsure how the alleged Saudi prince knew of his personal address.

Asked if he had not thought of where the alleged Saudi prince obtained his personal address, Najib nodded as he said: “Because my address is public knowledge.”

When Kamal Baharin asked how this was public knowledge and whether this was available online, Najib said: “I’m not sure from where he knew it, but many people know.”

Earlier today, Najib confirmed he was aware that both the misappropriation of 1MDB funds and RM2.6 billion entering his accounts were hot topics for the public, at the time he was charged with 25 charges in the 1MDB trial on September 20, 2018.

While insisting that the RM2.6 billion and 1MDB were separate issues, Najib said these two issues were among the reasons that caused his Barisan Nasional coalition to lose the 13th general election in May 2018, but said these “may not be the main reason”.

Asked by deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib, Najib disagreed his knowledge of these two hot topics meant that he understood the power abuse charges against him in the 1MDB trial were due to his having an interest in 1MDB.

Later when asked by Kamal Baharin, Najib disagreed that he actually understood the charges against him in the 1MDB trial, saying that these charges were “very confusing”.

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