1MDB trial: Ex-PM Najib claims ties with fugitive financier Jho Low exaggerated

KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia’s former prime minister Najib Razak told the High Court that his purported close connection with Low Taek Jho was over-sensationalised when other individuals in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) financial scandal were closer to the fugitive businessman.

Najib said he was falsely implicated in the case merely due to the presence of Low (also known as Jho Low) at his residence.

“While I do not deny that, on certain occasions, Jho Low was present at my residence in Langgak Duta, it is important to understand the context of my interactions with him during that time,” he said.

“My interactions with him were always guided by what I believed to be in the best interests of Malaysia,” he added.

He said other key individuals – former 1MDB chief executive officer Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, former 1MDB general counsel Jasmine Loo and former AmBank relationship manager Joanna Yu – had visited Low at his home.

“Shahrol’s admission in court was that he made nasi goreng for Jho Low and, let us not forget, Yu made Jho Low soup when he was unwell,” he said.

“For the record, I never prepared any meals for Jho Low,” Najib said in his response to testimony by Loo.

Disputing lawyer’s accounts

Loo, who was the 50th prosecution witness, testified in her witness statement that she would hand over a Special Rights Redeemable Preference Shareholder Resolution and Minutes of Representative to Low for him to obtain Najib’s signature.

In her testimony, she said she had, on one occasion, waited at the gate of Najib’s residence in Langgak Duta, Kuala Lumpur, where Low collected the documents from her.

On another occasion, she said Low exited Najib’s house and took the documents from her directly.

Najib refuted Loo’s testimony, saying she sought only to create the impression that Low was at his Langgak Duta residence, as though he and Low were conspiring together.

This, Najib said, could be viewed from another perspective, where Loo was not only a close associate of Low but also his lawyer, and later became his lucrative business partner.

“It is, therefore, highly likely that Loo brought the resolutions to my residence in Langgak Duta and waited for their execution because she was scheming with Jho Low and members of the management, such as Datuk Shahrol, to ensure that I signed the resolutions to enable them to execute their conniving plans, which often involved misappropriating millions from 1MDB of which I knew nothing,” Najib said.

On Oct 30, Najib was ordered by the High Court to enter his defence on four counts of using his position to obtain a RM2.28 billion (S$688 million) gratification from 1MDB’s funds and 21 counts of money laundering involving the same amount.

The hearing continues before Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah on Dec 6. THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK