KUALA LUMPUR (July 24): DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang has questioned as to what Datuk Seri Najib Razak's response was to the ruling by Justice Datuk Azimah Omar that there was no evidence of the RM2.6 billion fund being donated by Saudi royalty.
In a statement on Sunday (July 24), the member of parliament for Iskandar Puteri referred to the judgement in the defamation case filed by former attorney general Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali against him.
It was reported that Justice Azimah, who had dismissed the suit, described in her 100-page judgement released on Thursday (July 21) that it was the most telling and revealing evidence that Apandi overtly showed disinterest and indifference to elementary rule of law and even common sense.
The court noticed this when Apandi was questioned continuously by Lim's lawyers over absolving Najib by accepting the argument that the amount of more than RM2.6 billion the former prime minister received was from Saudi royalty.
"It is not exactly rocket science to appreciate the issue of the RM2.6 billion (which Apandi had declared as donation) would be the core and fulcrum to his very own case swings and tilts by. It would be a grave remiss if the plaintiff were to avail himself to this court, without being candid and without being fully equipped to the brim to justify his magnanimous decision to prefer the donation narrative to exonerate Najib," the judge said.
Lim said the importance of the Azimah judgement went beyond the former attorney general as it had completely demolished Najib's narrative that the RM2.6 billion donation in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal was from the former king of Saudi Arabia.
"The Azimah judgement referred to the 'first obvious untruth' in Apandi's press conference statement on Jan 26, 2016, where Apandi 'brazenly and confidently announced' that his own delegation had flown to Riyadh and personally met the alleged donor himself and recorded the donor's own personal confirmation of the donation.
"This was a lie as Apandi testified on cross-examination that his delegation did not even meet nor speak to the alleged donor," said Lim.