The High Court in Putrajaya heard an argument from Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s legal team asserting that judges in the previous SRC International trial never officially ruled the controversial Saudi donation letters as fabricated. The letters, which allegedly accompanied large fund transfers into Najib’s personal accounts, remain central to his defence in the ongoing 1MDB corruption trial.
Defence counsel Wan Azwan Aiman Wan Fakhruddin told the court that AmBank received the four donation letters around the same time the funds — exceeding RM2 billion — were deposited into Najib’s accounts. He said this timing demonstrated that the bank had considered the documents legitimate and used them as part of its due diligence process before allowing the transfers.
According to Wan Azwan, none of the courts involved in the SRC case — the High Court, Court of Appeal, or Federal Court — had explicitly ruled that the letters were false. He noted that High Court Judge Datuk Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali had dismissed the donation explanation in that case but had not concluded that the documents were forgeries. The defence maintained that each case should be treated independently and that Judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah, who is presiding over the current 1MDB proceedings, should reach his own decision on the authenticity of the letters.
Najib has consistently maintained that the funds entering his account came as donations from Saudi royalty, not misappropriated 1MDB money. The prosecution, however, has argued that the four letters were fabricated as part of a cover-up to disguise the origins of the illicit funds.
The late Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram, who previously led the 1MDB prosecution, had described the letters as worthless and fabricated, claiming that courts in the SRC case had effectively dismissed them as unreliable evidence. Wan Azwan countered this by stating that no definitive finding of forgery had ever been recorded.
The defence further challenged the testimony of former 1MDB executive Jasmine Loo, who claimed that fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, had directed an associate to draft one of the donation letters in a London hotel.
In addition to defending the letters’ authenticity, Najib’s legal team also attacked the validity of the four abuse-of-power charges against him, labelling them defective and “duplicitous.” Lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah argued that each charge improperly combined multiple alleged offences, rendering them legally invalid.
The defence insisted that such errors could not be corrected by the court and urged an immediate acquittal for the former prime minister. Proceedings continue before Judge Sequerah.
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