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Najib’s SRC Trial: Prosecution Say Have Proven Case Against Najib

June 3, 2020

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Najib has claimed utter ignorance and shoved the responsibility to other persons who are either missing, wanted or dead.

The prosecution in Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s corruption trial involving RM42 million of SRC International Sdn Bhd money wrapped up its case today calling on the judge to convict the former Prime Minister of all seven charges.

Lead prosecutor Datuk V Sithambaram in his closing submission said the prosecution had dealt with all issues raised during the trial to prove its case against Najib.

“If everything is looked at in totality, the seven charges (against Najib) have been proven.

“I have finished my submissions, tomorrow is their day,” he said as he ended the prosecution’s case against the 67-year old former Finance Minister and also Umno president this evening.

With the prosecution closing its case, lead defence counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah will be taking centre stage to present the rebuttal submissions on behalf of his client tomorrow.

The senior counsel is expected to take the entire day and continue on Friday if he fails to finish it in a day.

After Shafee completes his submissions, High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali will fix a date to deliver his judgment in the trial which began in April last year.

In his submissions today, Sithambaram touched on key evidence which had been heard during the trial and said everything pointed to Najib’s guilt.

He said Najib was fully aware of everything that happened involving the RM42 million right from the time the money left SRC International coffers and ended up in his personal account.

Sithambaram dismissed the defence arguments that Najib’s mindset at that time was that the money in his account was part of Arab donations that he had received from the late King Abdullah Abdulaziz Al Saud.

Sithambaram said Najib was in constant contact with fugitive financier Jho Low, his then principal private secretary Datuk Azlin Alias, and his account’s mandate holder Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, who had all kept him abreast of his financial situation.

“But even if he could not get hold of Azlin to confirm, he would nevertheless still issue cheques worth millions from his ‘sense’ that funds are available to him.

“This can only be the action of a man who knew his account balance. It would be outrageous for a prime minister and finance minister to simply issue cheques based on his gut feelings,” the prosecution argued.

“Did he (Najib) know or did he turn a blind eye? Ordinarily, even if a multi-millionaire suddenly received RM42 million into his bank account, he would know,” Sithambaram added.

On the defence claims that people like Jho Low had manipulated his account, the deputy public prosecutor said such claim was nothing but a myth.

“They (the defence) are making a lot of hue and cry that the accused was misled to believe he still had Arab funds when he used up the RM42 million.

“This is nothing but a myth. The fact that RM42 million came into his account is not disputed…he is just saying that he did not know it was SRC money.

“This is ridiculous. Any reasonable person, in particular a man of finance will know or ought to have known what was going on,” he said.

Sithambaram said evidence has shown that Najib continued to spend without any care even after claiming to have no knowledge of the exact amount of Arab donations entering his accounts.

Since Najib had exhausted the Arab money and returned a portion of it which he received in his bank accounts later, Sithambaram questioned how could Najib assume there was still money in his accounts and issued more cheques without being suspicious of the funds in his accounts.

“The circumstances paint the clearest picture that the accused must have reasonably suspected the source of the funds but deliberately chose not to inquire about it.

“Instead, the accused has claimed utter ignorance and shoved the responsibility to other persons who are either missing, wanted or dead.

Sithambaram said Jho Low had actually bankrolled Najib to the tune of RM86 million within a period of six months between September 2014 and December 2015.

According to Sithambaram, evidentiary documents and communication transcripts showed Najib had knowledge of his bank accounts, the balance as well as the credit and debit of the RM42 million.

Najib had five personal AmBank accounts between 2011 and 2015, which SRC International CEO Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil acted as mandate holder.

“I find it fascinating that the accused never looked at his bank accounts once in five years,” said Sithambaram.

“He could obtain a bank statement at any time. The bank statement was not kept from the accused. In fact, the accused kept away from the bank statement.”

Sithambaram said SRC International had nothing to show in all the years it was formed except for RM9.3 billion debt that the country was left to deal with.

He said that Najib’s claim that the company’s formation was in the interest of the country as it needed to venture into energy and other natural resources was not true.

He said there were no checks and balances ever initiated to ensure the company performed but instead everything was rushed to the extent that RM4 billion loan was released even though the company had nothing to show for it.

“This is definitely not national interest…,” he said before ending his submissions.

Earlier reports:

Jun 2, Najib’s SRC Trial: Defence Discredits Ex-Minister

Jun 2, Najib’s SRC Trial: Defence Says Don’t Convict Najib Based on “Court of Public Opinion”

Jun 1, Najib’s SRC Trial: Defence Lawyers Argu It Wasn’t Najib, Blame Jho Low and Nik Faisal

Mar 11, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 90

Mar 10, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 89

Mar 9, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 88

Mar 9, Latheefa and Shafee Visibly Upset with Each Other

Mar 9, Apandi Stands by 2016 Statements Clearing Najib of Wrongdoing

Mar 5, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 87

Mar 4, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 86