This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on January 10, 2020

KUALA LUMPUR: Former prime minister (PM) Datuk Seri Najib Razak testified in court yesterday that it was his wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, and not him who had purchased RM3.3 million worth of de Grisogono jewellery which were charged to Najib’s AmBank credit card.

Najib had previously testified that the gift was purchased for the wife of Qatar’s ex-prime minister Sheikh Hamad Jassim Jaber Al Thani.

Najib is alleged to have purchased the jewellery during his and Rosmah's trip to Italy on Aug 8, 2014.

However, during the course of his cross-examination yesterday carried out by prosecutor Datuk V Sithambaram, Najib recalled the purchase, but said he did not know much about it as Rosmah had made the purchase in question.

“I paid for it with my card, but I asked my wife to choose,” he told the court.

Sithambaram then replied in jest: “Yes sir, women would know women better”, eliciting giggles in the courtroom.

This came to light when the appointed prosecutor asked Najib about the nature of the purchase and how many pieces of jewellery were actually purchased.

Najib initially said the RM3.3 million purchase was “a single piece of jewellery”; however Sithambaram revealed that his bank statement had listed the purchase of 10 items from de Grisogono on that date.

After studying the statements for a while, Najib then told the court that it looked like she had purchased a set of jewellery.

“Looks like it was a set. I have to check with my wife, she did the purchase,” said Najib.

Sithambaram grilled Najib over the gift, and put it to the accused that it was not a gift for the wife of Qatar prime minister, to which Najib denied.

A defence had previously raised a letter dated Aug 15, 2014 from Sheikh Hamad’s wife Noor Abdulaziz Abdulla Turki Al-Subaie was to thank Najib and Rosmah for the purchase.

However, Sithambaram disputed the letter and questioned the purpose of the purchase.

Sithambaram: I'm putting it to you that there was no gift of this sum to the wife of the PM of Qatar. You agree or disagree?

Najib: I disagree.

Sithambaram: I'm putting it to you that this letter was produced after the event to explain the purchases.

Najib: I disagree.

Other expenditures ‘insignificant’

Najib had also testified that his other transactions on his credit card, which include over RM200,000 spent at the Shangri-La Bangkok, Westin Excelsior in Rome and St Regis in Bali, were insignificant amounts.

Sithambaram had pointed out that Najib had previously testified that the only charge to this particular credit card was RM466,330.11 to buy a Chanel watch for Rosmah.

The DPP suggested that this was untrue, and he had in fact used the card for the other expenditures.

To this, Najib said he agreed, but the expenditures were much smaller.

“I have to qualify that. The rest of the purchases was considered as not significant or less significant,” he said.

Sithambaram then asked him: “Compared to the Arab donation, you mean? These would be considered significant amounts for other people,” to which Najib replied in the affirmative.