Saadatul Nafisah Bashir Ahmad, the seventh prosecution witness in Najib and former 1MDB chief executive officer Arul Kanda Kandasamy's 1MDB audit tampering trial, testified that this was a direct instruction from the then Chief Secretary to the government Tan Sri Ali Hamsa on Najib's behalf.
This startling admission by Najib contradicts his earlier repeated assertions that he was only in contact with former SRC International Sdn Bhd managing director Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, and Datuk Azlin Alias — his deceased former private secretary, about the issuing of cheques.
Najib had previously testified that the gift was purchased for the wife of Qatar's ex-prime minister Sheikh Hamad Jassim Jaber Al Thani.
He told the press after his SRC International Sdn Bhd trial today that “it was normal” for him to discuss these things privately with his wife.
Rizal was earlier jointly charged with Najib's wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor in the corruption case.
"I will leave it to my lawyers. My lawyers will handle it."
He contended that his signatures could have been forged on documents that included SRC’s minutes of meetings and directors’ circular resolutions.
Responding to deputy public prosecutor (DPP) Datuk V Sithambaram's suggestion that the running of SRC was a miserable failure, Najib said "we did not know it was so" at that time.
The document in question — labelled P530 by the court — claimed to be original by Ismee, contains Najib's instructions to SRC's board, including opening accounts at specific banks and the transfer of the company's first RM2 billion loan obtained from Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP) in 2011 to banks in Switzerland.
In his first interview with the media since fleeing Malaysia in 2015, the fugitive told Singapore’s The Straits Times newspaper that he is a convenient scapegoat in the multibillion-dollar global financial scandal by virtue of not being a politician.
The only property app you need. More than 200,000
sale/rent listings and daily property news.
