This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on June 29, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: The family of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has begun legal measures to claim items that have been seized by police.

The items seized were mostly gifts from friends and foreign dignitaries, including royalty, Najib said in a Facebook statement yesterday.

He said that these gifts were received in conjunction with various occasions including official visits and family events such as birthdays, anniversaries, weddings and engagements.

Najib added that some of the items seized belonged to relatives and various third parties.

“We dispute the quantity and the valuation given in the press conference by the police since such valuation is subjective and is subject to when the gifts were given,” said Najib.

He said that as most of the items were gifts accumulated over decades, his family was not aware of how much was paid by those who had gifted these items.

Najib said that any valuation based on retail prices and current prices for the items would be “unrealistic, likely to be grossly inflated, and will give a very distorted picture as these items were received as gifts over a period that spans decades”.

He cited an example in which the police had stated in the press conference that the most expensive watch was a Rolex Daytona, which was said to be valued at RM3.4 million.

“This item referred to by the police appears to be a recent gift along with several other valuables given by the interior minister, who is also a prince of a Middle Eastern country who visited Malaysia in March this year.

“The police should also have stated that this item along with several others were contained in a box with the royal crest of a foreign country. This fact should not have been omitted,” he said.