.JPG "MACC investigating officer Mohd Nasharudin Amir arrives at the Kuala Lumpur High Court March 2, 2020. u00e2u20acu201d Picture by Meira Zulyana")
KUALA LUMPUR, March 2 — A Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officer told the High Court today that former minister Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom was in Putrajaya, disputing the latter’s claim to have been in an unofficial visit with the late Saudi ruler King Abdullah Abdulaziz Al-Saud in January 2010.
Testifying as the ninth defence witness in Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s RM42 million SRC International Sdn Bhd corruption trial today, MACC investigating officer Assistant Commissioner Mohd Nasharudin Amir said he sought fellow colleague Nur Aida Ariffin’s help to obtain information about Jamil Khir’s whereabouts between January 11 and 16, 2010.
He said he was subsequently provided a news bulletin by the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) where Jamil Khir had given a speech on January 11, 2010 during an event organised by Jakim in Putrajaya.
“In the newsletter, he was reported to be at a gathering with several Prime Minister Department’s agencies on January 11, 2010,” he said under cross examination by ad-hoc prosecutor Datuk V. Sithambaram on investigations over Najib and Jamil Khir’s whereabouts.
The first paragraph of the purported Jakim’s bulletin, dated February 2010, allegedly stated that Jamil Khir, then minister, had delivered a ministerial address in Putrajaya on that date.
Last week, Sithambaram had asked Mohd Nasharudin — an investigating officer in Najib’s 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) investigation from August 2015 until May 2018 — to obtain documents on the whereabouts of both Najib and Jamil Khir on January 11 until 16, 2010.
Jamil Khir had previously affirmed that an informal meeting between the two heads of state had taken place at King Abdullah’s palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on January 11, 2010, which he attended in his capacity as minister in charge of Islamic affairs.
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Najib was previously claimed to have been in Kuala Lumpur to officiate the opening of 1MDB’s corporate office on January 11 despite defence witnesses saying the former premier was in Saudi Arabia to meet the late King Abdullah for an informal meeting with Malaysian delegates on the same day.
In the January informal meeting, Najib and several defence witnesses have claimed that King Abdullah offered monetary assistance to the former premier for the purpose of managing Najib’s political affairs in the 2013 general election.
Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah objected to the evidence produced, arguing that the author of the article needed to be called to testify because it is hearsay and therefore not admissible.
Sithambaram then argued that the document was printed out from Jakim itself and verified to by one of the Jakim’s corporate communications department staff.
Najib has maintained throughout his trial that multiple transactions amounting to RM3.2 billion from 2011 to 2013 were Saudi royal family donations.
Najib is on trial over seven charges related to SRC International Sdn Bhd.
Three are for criminal breach of trust over a total RM42 million of SRC International funds while entrusted with its control as the prime minister and finance minister then, three more are for laundering the RM42 million, and the last is for abusing the same positions for self-gratification of the same sum.
