KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 3): Fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho called for meetings once or twice a month with Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s principal private secretary and special officer, the High Court was told today.
On the third day of Najib’s 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) case or Tanore trial, the 8th prosecution witness, Datuk Amhari Effendi Nazaruddin, who was the former prime minister's special officer back in 2009, said these meetings were done discretely late at night at Prince Hotel here.
Low, better known as Jho Low, was known to be Najib’s “unofficial adviser” and had “extraordinary” powers who had direct access to the former premier and would also work behind the scenes for Najib in handling international relations, government-to-government negotiations, 1MDB and political funding arrangements.
Reading out his witness statement today, Amhari said the purpose of the meetings was for Jho Low to relay instructions from Najib to himself, and the late Datuk Seri Azlin Alias, who was Najib’s principal private secretary and closest aide, whom Amhari reported to.
Amhari described the modus operandi of the meeting, which included Jho Low emailing a set of documents to the two, before each scheduled meeting. Before attending the meeting, Jho Low would also go to Najib’s house first to discuss the documents.
“The modus operandi for our evening meetings was that when we arrived at the hotel, we would be escorted by Jho Low's bodyguard to the room, as soon as we arrived in the lobby.
“Normally, Datuk Azlin and I would come to the hotel separately. Our car registration numbers are a reference to the bodyguard and there are usually one- to two Malay bodyguards who will accompany us.
"We would be detained while waiting for Jho Low, usually in a suite. We typically wait 30 minutes to an hour. Although we met often at the Prince Hotel, it was in different rooms each time,” Amhari said.
The witness said Jho Low, who usually attended the meetings wearing a batik shirt, was always late. He was also often in a rush, though he was always pleasant and smiled a lot.
During these meetings, Amhari said his role was to accompany Azlin and that he would frequently look at his phone, while listening to discussions between Low and Azlin, which he described as being fast.
“At the time, I was less familiar with issues of finance and company structures. Azlin was more experienced in these things, so I was rarely referred to,” he said.
The meetings gradually became more complex as instructions given by Low became more aggressive, the witness said.
“Every order or action to be taken must be carried out promptly and in a short time. Sometimes, these actions are very difficult to be completed immediately, but we still had to do them. For example, the nominees for certain positions listed by Jho existed before [the nominations] were announced to the public. It should be discussed with Najib first. However, it would surely be approved by Najib,even though the list was proposed by Jho,” the witness said.
During these discussions, Amhari described Azlin as expressing shock and even raised his eyebrows on occasions,as well as questioning certain issues because some of them were rather out of the ordinary, such as speeding up the process of obtaining approval for financing.
In such situations, Jho Low would calmly tell them to refer to Najib,if they wanted confirmation, the witness said.