20 Apr 2024, 21:55 Kuching
20 Apr 2024, 14:55 London
Najib claimed that at the time, he had no knowledge of the money source when the deposits were made in 2014 and 2015.
The Pekan MP said he only found out the possibility of the money being siphoned from SRC International from media reports, and cited London-based whistleblower website Sarawak Report.
Sithambaram: Around the middle of 2015, as a result of the Sarawak Report article, you agree that you were aware that SRC’s money had been paid into your account?
Najib: At that time when the thing became an issue, I became aware that it could have been SRC’s money via Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd, but I had no knowledge and I didn’t authorise it.
Sithambaram: Since you became aware when it became an issue as a result of the Sarawak Report article, you did not return the money to SRC?
Najib: Yes, I did not return because it was the subject of investigations.
Sithambaram: The logical thing to do was to return the money; if you know money wrongly came in you would return, you agree?
Najib: Yes, I should have, but at that time it was still the subject of investigations…
Similar to the earlier stages of his testimony, Najib maintained that despite claims of inconsistencies within documents tendered as evidence against him, no police report was made by him as the case was already being investigated by authorities.
Najib did not issue a police report into the mysterious millions that had come into his bank account (which he spent) nor did he return the money after Sarawak Report alerted him that it had been stolen from SRC, as he now admits.
However, this very busy man (who explained he had 1,001 other things to attend to) DID take a number of other actions related to the matter. Sarawak Report can remember this very well, because it was the butt of several of them.
He ensured that warrants were issued by the IGP against the Editor of this news site for “spreading false news” and “activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy” and further that a Red Notice terrorism alert was filed with INTERPOL and ASEANPOL seeking our arrest and extradition.
He also arranged for this site to be banned in Malaysia and for threats to be issued to locally based news organisations that repeated our evidence on their own platforms.
Further to that, Najib worked closely with PetroSaudi and Jho Low to get SR whistleblower Xavier Justo arrested in Bangkok, where he was forced into a false confession by agents of PetroSaudi claiming that information was being forged by Sarawak Report.
He then sacked the AG who drew up charge sheets based on the information published by Sarawak Report and also sacked his Deputy PM who had demanded explanations.
Najib may be admitting the money was stolen now and that he realised it at the time, but then he was denying it and going after anyone who sought to expose the truth in the most ruthless manner he could. He certainly was not offering to give the money back or making a police report into what went wrong.
Had Sarawak Report been captured, tried and sentenced by Najib’s law officers at that time, a jail term of 20 years awaited us. So, what jail term awaits a political leader who steals billions from the public purse and then seeks to cover it up at the expense of the freedom of honest reporters?
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