KUALA LUMPUR, April 26 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak was accorded ample opportunity to provide detailed explanation during his interrogation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) over investigations into 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) back in 2018.
MACC Senior Superintendent Nur Aida Arifin said this while testifying as the 49th prosecution witness in Najib’s trial over the misappropriation of 1MDB’s RM2.27 billion here at the High Court.
Nur Aida said anyone called in by MACC either as a witness or a subject of investigation is afforded the same privilege, and not just Najib alone.
“It has always been our method to record the statement of an accused where questions will be asked and recordings are done narratively, so the witness or accused is given opportunities to provide a detailed explanation,” she told Najib’s lawyer Wan Azwan Aiman under cross-examination.
Wan Azwan had put it to Nur Aida that interrogators had only asked Najib to identify certain documents pertaining to Najib’s pre-signing of approvals on behalf of 1MDB’s shareholder Minister of Finance (MoF) Incorporated for a proposed acquisition of a power plant firm in August 2012.
This was denied by Nur Aida.
He then suggested that MACC had never at any point in time explained how the documents pertained to the charges or allegations levelled against Najib while recording his statements.
“Specifically (in reference to the documents), no,” she said.
Imprisoned since August 23, 2022, Najib is serving a 12-year jail sentence for the misappropriation of SRC International’s RM42 million funds. This was recently reduced to six years of jail and a RM50 million fine, from the initial RM210 million, by the Pardons Board.
Najib’s 1MDB trial before trial judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah resumes tomorrow.
