KUALA LUMPUR: The prosecution in Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s SRC International Sdn Bhd trial at the High Court here on Dec 18 questioned the former prime minister’s failure to lodge a police report regarding his allegation that his signature had been forged in several documents relating to the SRC case.
Ad hoc prosecutor Datuk V. Sithambaram said the allegation from Najib was an afterthought as it had only been raised during defence stage.
However, Najib while cross-examined by Sithambaram, denied that it was an afterthought as the word ‘forgery’ was only heard in the trial during his defence stage.
Sithambaram: You agree with me when your signature is forged in any documents, you will lodge a police report.
Najib: I found out that there was a possibility of my signature was forged during the trial of this case.
Sithambaram: That’s not my question. Would you make a police report?
Najib: That is why we asked for the expert to first examine the signatures, once it is confirmed (that it had been forged) then we will make a police report.
Najib also disagreed to Sithambaram’s suggestion that his application to call a document expert was to ‘bolster an untruthful event’ of forgery.
Sithambaram also deemed it was odd that Najib could not tell his own signatures from the forged ones and that the former prime minister needed an expert to verify that.
Najib said that he had his doubt over the signatures during the investigation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) but kept it to himself and did not even mention it to the person who took his statement.
The Pekan MP also told the court that he did not know RM32 mil had been transferred into his personal account as he had left it to a third party to deal with his bank accounts.
Sithambaram then questioned the former premier whether he was involved in the company’s operational matters such as the transfer of RM40 mil from SRC to Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd, a company that was in charge of SRC’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes, to which Najib replied in the negative.
Najib said during the time, he did not dispute the outflow to Ihsan Perdana because he was not aware of the transaction and it was all up to the SRC’s management team.
Further pressed by Sithambaram that as the adviser emeritus of SRC Najib should know about the RM40 mil transaction, Najib who is also a former finance minister, stressed that he was not involved in the operational matters of the company as he was overseeing the administration of the country.
On another issue, Najib said the SRC’s board of directors (BOD) had never consulted him on the spending of the RM2 bil borrowed from the Retirement Fund Incorporated (KWAP) even though he held the highest position (in the company as adviser emeritus) and the Ministry of Finance (Incorporated) was the sole shareholder of the company.
“Such things were considered as operational matters and fell under the company’s BOD. My position in SRC was to determine strategic matters. Not day-to-day operations,” he added.
When he was referred to a letter sent to AmIslamic Bank bearing his name and signature, Najib replied: “Looks like my signature, yes.”
To this, the DPP described Najib’s answer as almost similar to an infamous quote in the controversial video clip trial “looks like me, sounds like me, but it’s not me” which led to laughter from the people in the court.
On Nov 11, Najib was ordered to enter his defence on seven charges of misappropriating RM42 mil in SRC International Sdn Bhd funds, comprising three counts of criminal breach of trust, three counts of money laundering and one count of abuse of position in relation to the SRC funds.
The hearing before judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali continues on Dec 19. – Bernama
