This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on May 23, 2018

PUTRAJAYA: Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said he is expected to continue being questioned by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) tomorrow.

Yesterday, Najib spent over four hours being questioned at the MACC headquarters here between 10am and 3pm over his involvement in SRC International Sdn Bhd (SRCI), a former subsidiary of debt-laden 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

He appeared smilingly calm as he headed into the building and left with a similar demeanour.

Speaking to journalists outside the MACC headquarters, Najib said he had given a more detailed statement on SRCI alongside document authentication compared with the statement he gave in 2015.

“I had come up and given a statement on the SRCI issue to MACC in 2015. My statement today (yesterday) is a follow-up of that. It is more detailed and comprehensive.

“I would like to thank the MACC team who took my statement today (yesterday). They were all professional,” he said before leaving in a white Toyota Vellfire. Najib said he had been given a half-hour break during his interrogation.

However, he added that a large part of the questioning was completed yesterday.

At a press conference yesterday, MACC’s newly appointed chief commissioner Datuk Seri Mohd Shukri Abdull said the agency must still question “one or two more important witnesses” before it can begin pressing charges in relation to the 1MDB-linked SRCI case involving Najib.

Mohd Shukri said Najib was the only witness questioned yesterday. He added that Najib would not be arrested and that his statements were being collected in light of new evidence.

“If we feel satisfied [with his answers], we will release him. But if we think we still need more statements [from him], we will call him back,” Mohd Shukri told reporters, declining to reveal the nature of the recently obtained evidence.

Mohd Shukri said his one condition on returning to work for the MACC is that he is allowed to “complete unfinished business”, which he named as the SRCI and the missing RM2.6 billion alleged to have been transferred to Najib’s personal account.

If there is evidence to prove Najib had committed a crime, Mohd Shukri pledged to take action.

However, he said he would not seek revenge against Najib, but “let the law take its course”.

Also present at MACC headquarters was former solicitor-general Datuk Mohd Yusof Zainal Abiden, believed to have taken charge as Najib’s legal council, following the resignation of Datuk Harpal Singh Grewal and M Athimulan as his lawyers on Monday.