KUALA LUMPUR – Datuk Seri Najib Razak would have overlooked the RM42 million in his account that was linked to SRC International Bhd as the figure pales in comparison to the mammoth RM2.6 billion “gift” that was “donated from Saudi Arabia”, said an Umno Youth leader.
Bukit Gantang Umno Youth chief Mohammad Sollehin Mohd Tajie said while he did not deny the existence of the RM42 million, the reason the matter was not flagged then was because the former prime minister was not aware of the sum being transferred to him.
This is as the transaction coincided with the RM2.6 billion political donation from the Saudis to ensure Umno remained in government, as a reward for Malaysia not being part of the Arab Spring movement in 2011, Sollehin said.
“When (the Arab prince) met Najib, he said: ‘Najib, I like the way you administer Malaysia because there are no extremists like in other Arab countries, and I want Umno to remain as a government and I will provide aid’. And so he gave RM2.6 billion.
“Comparing RM2.6 billion to RM42 million is like comparing RM2,000 to 4 kupang (40 sen). If it was RM2,000, surely we would have noticed. But 4 kupang?
“Najib thought the RM42 million and RM2.6 billion are the same money given by the Saudi government. That was why Najib failed to notice the RM42 million,” he said during a recent ceramah, of which a portion of the talk was uploaded on his own TikTok account yesterday.
@sollehintajie Duit 42 juta Masuk Akaun Dato’ Najib Razak ?? #najibrazak #PemudaUMNOMalaysia #teamkpsollehin #pemudaumnobahagianbukitgantang ♬ Clean, motivational, positive corporate music - 3KTrack
The video has since made the rounds on various social media platforms, with many netizens finding Sollehin’s take on the issue ridiculous.
Najib had last month began his 12-year prison sentence after the Federal Court upheld the high court’s decision to find him guilty of all seven charges in relation to his SRC International Sdn Bhd corruption case.
The five-man bench led by Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat ruled that the Pekan MP had failed to dispute that the RM42 million had indeed entered his personal bank accounts, despite the latter claiming ignorance.
Najib had also consistently claimed that the RM2.6 billion deposited into his accounts, that was linked to 1Malaysia Development Bhd, was a donation from the Saudi government.
Reciting three pages of Quran already overwhelming, imagine 23 chapters on 1MDB
In a separate TikTok video of his speech, Sollehin decried the apex court’s decision to dismiss Najib’s multiple bids to postpone his SRC International hearing in order to allow his new defence counsel more time to prepare for the case.
This was in reference to Najib’s eleventh-hour decision to discharge Shafee & Co and appoint Zaid Ibrahim Suflan TH Liew & Partners effective July 25, less than a month ahead of his final appeal.
“Zaid Ibrahim had said that they could try to hire lawyers from India as the legal system there is not much different from ours, but that he needed time,” said Sollehin.
“So the first thing they did was to seek postponement by four months.
“Why? This is because there are about 23 different volumes of documents (in this case).
“One volume is about three inches thick. He (Datuk Mohd Zaid Ibrahim) said it is impossible to go through them in three or four days, he needed at least four or five months.
“Even if we read the Quran, three or four pages can already feel too much, what more this thick.
“So logically, more time was needed. But what did the court say? Not a single day’s postponement was given.” – The Vibes, September 13, 2022
