KUALA LUMPUR – The high court here today was told that Datuk Seri Najib Razak had asked the cabinet not to make the donation from a Saudi prince to Yayasan 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) public, per the donor’s request.
Former deputy chief secretary (cabinet) Tan Sri Mazidah Abdul Majid, 72, said the former prime minister informed the matter during a cabinet meeting held in Putrajaya on September 8, 2010.
The meeting was chaired by Najib himself, as the then-finance minister, she said.
“Saudi prince Sultan Abdulaziz Al-Saud channelled the donation from his charity foundation to Yayasan 1MDB. Najib said the first contribution had been received and the prince had promised to channel subsequent donations later.
“Najib said with the donation, more projects and corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes can be implemented through Yayasan 1MDB,” she said when reading her witness statement at the former premier’s 1MDB trial.
The 11th prosecution witness said that at the same meeting, Najib asked cabinet members to propose CSR projects that could be implemented in October 2010.
“He also said the government should be more creative in finding other sources of funds as it would give the government more flexibility to help the people,” she said.
Mazidah said the minutes of the meeting were later verified by cabinet secretary Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan and then-deputy prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
In September 2019, former 1MDB chief executive Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi testified that fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low, handed him four cheques totalling US$100 million (RM404.4 million), which were alleged donations from the Saudi royal family to Yayasan 1MDB Trust Fund.
He then passed the cheques to the 1MDB finance department for safekeeping before tendering his resignation in 2013.
Najib, 67, is facing four charges of using his position to obtain bribes totalling RM2.3 billion from 1MDB funds and 21 charges of money laundering involving the same amount.
The trial before judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues tomorrow. – Bernama, February 10, 2021
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