KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 14): The Pavilion condo raid four years ago was nothing more than "a smoking gun" to implicate former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, said senior lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.
Shafee said Monday’s (Nov 14) court decision, where High Court judge Datuk Muhammad Jamil Hussin dismissed the forfeiture of millions worth of jewellery, watches and handbags — said to be in relation to 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) — demonstrated that the raid had nothing to do with the sovereign fund.
“The court case shows this has nothing to do with 1MDB, as the court today was satisfied that the prosecution had failed to prove the predicate offence of criminal breach of trust and that the said items were retained from 1MDB funds.
“In fact, the court found there is not an iota of evidence to link it,” Shafee said at a press conference at the court complex here.
He said there were claims that the funds were illegally obtained, and the raid in short was used as a "smoking gun" to show Najib and Rosmah were the culprits in the 1MDB case.
“Now we know [from the court decision] that this was a lie orchestrated by the [Pakatan Harapan] government then,” Shafee said.
He referred to former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who led the government then as orchestrating the allegations in quickly linking the raid to purportedly stolen 1MDB funds.
Meanwhile, the lawyer added that of the RM114 million in foreign currencies that was seized from the Pavilion raid, there was actually more of it, as Najib had said that the sum was worth around RM160 million.
The senior lawyer said no search list was given to his client, and Najib was left wondering as to where the balance of the purported money of RM160 million went.
Earlier on Monday, judge Datuk Muhammad Jamil Hussin dismissed the forfeiture application made by the prosecution for 2,435 pieces of jewellery, seven watches, and 29 Hermes handbags from the raid. Initially, the authorities said that close to 12,000 pieces of jewellery, hundreds of watches and accessories were seized from the raid on the property owned by OBYU Holdings Sdn Bhd.
However, it is understood that the prosecution had dropped the claim on the rest due to representations sent.
In the end, the court allowed the return of RM114 million cash in foreign denominations to Najib and Umno, and also a US$220,000 bracelet to Global Royalty Trading SAL, a Lebanese jeweller which had lay claim on the item.
In Monday’s decision, Jamil also dismissed the prosecution’s oral application for a stay of his decision, despite Deputy Public Prosecutor Faten Hadni Khairuddin having sought for it should the prosecution agree to file an appeal against the decision.
If so, the prosecution has 14 days to file the appeal.