Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 9): Former attorney-general Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali will be called in as a defence witness in former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s SRC International Sdn Bhd corruption trial, the High Court was told today.

Najib’s lawyer Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohammed told the court that the defence would be calling the former AG to verify and confirm a press statement he had written in 2016, vindicating Najib of any wrongdoing in the RM42 million scandal.

“We will be calling the relevant witness to take the stand to verify the statement. We will call the former Attorney-General Tan Sri Apandi Ali,” he told the court during his examination-in-chief of Najib.

During the examination, the former premier said Apandi had made the statement in 2016.

“I hold on to this [statement] to this day,” Najib told the court.

Najib then began reading excerpts of the statement which stated the following:

“There are no evidence to show that the Prime Minister has abused his position during the Cabinet Meeting, which approved the government guarantee on the RM4 billion loan to SRC International from Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (Diperbadankan) (KWAP).

“Evidence also shows that the loan approval process by KWAP and the loan guarantee approval by the Cabinet were properly done.

“There are no evidence to show that [the] Prime Minister had solicited or was promised any gratification from any party either before, during or after the Cabinet decision was made.

“The evidence as a whole, does not disclose any conflict of interest on the part of the Prime Minister.”

The statement also highlighted that there was no evidence from witnesses that could show Najib had committed any corrupt act in the course of investigations carried out by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission in 2015.

Najib then told the court that he “had no knowledge” of these unauthorised transactions with regards to SRC, until Apandi had released the statement.

Najib said he had also withdrawn his defamation suit against former transport minister Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik, because he was “happy to let the matter rest”.

The sixth prime minister decided to withdraw the suit against Ling last year, for comments the latter made about his alleged misuse of public funds.

“In the end, the suit was settled outside court, without any admission of liability,” he said.

Najib is facing three counts of criminal breach of trust, one charge of abusing his power as Prime Minister, and three counts of money laundering over SRC funds amounting to RM42 million.

If found guilty, he is liable to a 20-year jail term and a fine of RM5 million or five times the amount of money laundered, whichever is higher.

The Edge is reporting the proceedings of the SRC trial live.

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