News by Timothy Achariam

The defendants, most of whom are former Minister of Women, Family and Community Development Tan Sri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil’s family members, are accused of misappropriating and wrongly using RM118 million out of the RM250 million loan granted.

This was revealed by Dr Uzailee Abdul Latiff, a former Finance Ministry deputy secretary-general who was in charge of procurement at the time, who was testifying in the graft trial of former Home Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

"This meeting was an unofficial meeting on the 11th of January… Najib, former Foreign Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman, former Malaysian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Professor Datuk Syed Omar Alsagoff and myself attended the meeting," the ex-minister said.

Najib, who was on the witness stand at the SRC trial, testified today that the Penang-born businessman who goes by Jho Low had intentionally siphoned money into the former premier's personal accounts so that he would not ask any questions about the financier's schemes.

He had reiterated, as he had done before, that Husni's attempt to go to Switzerland was thwarted because he did not make a formal request with the cabinet.

"I'm not the most intelligent but I'm not so stupid as to put stolen money into a personal account," he said adding, "I wouldn't do something so bizarre."

Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had previously said Kasitah was a recipient of these funds, with the government trying to retrieve them.

Najib is suing her over the management of accounts under his name, which were used to divert funds from SRC.

Najib was put on the witness stand in December last year where he read out an almost-300-page witness statement detailing his defence against charges levelled against him for criminal breach of trust, abuse of power and money laundering involving RM42 million from SRC which wound up in his personal accounts.

Najib had said it was not prudent for him to check with them about the US$620 million left of the "donation" he had returned as "he knew" that Jho Low was the middleman.