In a surprising turn of events in Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) trial, two officers from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) have provided conflicting accounts regarding a crucial 2015 trip to Saudi Arabia. The trip was undertaken to investigate whether an alleged Saudi prince had indeed donated RM2.6 billion that had been deposited into Najib’s bank accounts.
Previously, MACC officer Fikri Ab Rahim, testifying as Najib’s defense witness, firmly denied claims that the MACC merely “cut and pasted” pre-prepared statements from key individuals, including a representative of the purported Saudi prince and Jho Low’s associate, Eric Tan Kim Loong. However, in a dramatic contradiction, another MACC officer, Mohd Nasharudin Amir, who served as the investigating officer for the case, admitted that the agency’s role during the Saudi trip was limited to copying pre-written statements without asking any questions or document verification.
Testifying as the defense witness, Nasharudin stated that the MACC team recorded statements from Mohamad Abdullah Al-Koman, a representative of the alleged donor, Prince Saud Abdulaziz Majid Al Saud, as well as Eric Tan on November 29, 2015, at a palace in Saudi Arabia. According to Nasharudin, these statements were already prepared, and the MACC merely transferred them into the MACC's format without conducting any meaningful inquiry. Nasharudin confirmed that those two individuals did not give any documents to support what they told the MACC in the investigations.
Under cross-examination by deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib, Nasharudin admitted that the trip to complete the story, with no real investigative effort. When asked whether the visit was merely to “complete the story, take statements without questioning, go eat, and come back,” Nasharudin replied, “Correct.”
Adding to the controversy, Nasharudin revealed that while the MACC delegation did meet with three alleged Saudi princes at the palace, he was uncertain if they had actually encountered Prince Saud. He stated that he was never introduced to the individual and did not personally verify his identity. The only verification conducted was through a passport shown to the delegation, but Nasharudin did not handle or closely examine it himself. Instead, senior MACC and Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) officials, including then-MACC director of investigations Tan Sri Azam Baki, interacted with the individuals present.
This testimony starkly contradicts Fikri’s earlier statement to have seen and verified a passport bearing Prince Saud’s name. While Fikri maintained that the passport photo matched the individual present, he admitted that he could not confirm whether the person had authored the donation letters.
Information Source: Malay Mail
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