KUALA LUMPUR: Former prime minister Najib Razak is seeking to compel the government to provide banking documents belonging to companies controlled by Low Taek Jho and Zeti Akhtar Aziz’s family.
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In an application for the documents, he said they were crucial for his 1MDB defence and the government had not made them available to his lawyers before his case began.
“It is essential for my defence and for a just decision in this case, (as well as) for the witnesses to be subpoenaed later,” he said.
Najib is standing trial on 25 charges for abuse of power and money laundering over alleged 1MDB funds amounting to RM2.28 billion deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.
Among the documents he sought from the government were bank account statements for Aktis Capital Singapore Pte Ltd, Country Group Securities Public Company Ltd, ACME Time Ltd (BVI), Butamba Investments Ltd, and Central Holdings Ltd. These companies were linked to Low, also known as Jho Low.
Other bank accounts sought by him were those from Iron Rhapsody Ltd, Cutting Edge Industries Ltd, as well as Shearman and Sterling LLC.
Besides bank account statements, Najib wants the government to produce company documents of all the firms mentioned.
“I state that the suppression of the bank documents has the effect of misinterpreting the truth and is a breach of my fundamental rights,” he said.
Najib also claimed that it was reported in the media that bank documents of Iron Rhapsody and Cutting Edge Industries were made available to Bank Negara Malaysia. These companies were controlled by Zeti’s husband, Tawfiq Ayman, and their children Alif and Aziz.
“The Singaporean government was reported saying they have surrendered the relevant documents to our government,” he said.
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He said Tawfiq, Alif and Aziz were reported to have signed statutory declarations (SDs) to relinquish their claims on funds in Iron Rhapsody and Cutting Edge Industries.
Najib also attached a letter dated Jan 19, from a law firm that executed Tawfiq and his sons’ SDs.
The firm in response confirmed the SDs were in their possession but said they did not play any role in the “preparation and its subsequent use”.
“Bukit Aman’s Commercial Crime Department has issued a statement saying they are investigating Tawfiq for alleged money laundering,” he said.
Police confirmed they were investigating Tawfiq over 1MDB-related funds allegedly transferred to a bank account he owned in Singapore.
The High Court set today as mention for Najib’s application to obtain the documents.
Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib said the prosecution received the application today.
The MalaysiaToday portal, run by blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin, had claimed that Tawfiq, Alif and Aziz received over RM100 million in funds from Low.
Najib had also urged Zeti to speak up against the allegations, citing that she came out with a statement in May 2018 to declare that she was unaware of the existence of funds or transactions in his bank accounts.
In response, Zeti had denied the allegations and said she would not be able to make any further comments as she was a potential witness in Najib’s 1MDB trial.-FMT