THE defence today accused Najib Razak’s former special officer of lying in his testimony to protect himself from prosecution, the Kuala Lumpur High Court heard today.

Lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah further suggested that Amhari Efendi Nazaruddin was pressured by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to finger the blame on Najib, who is currently facing 25 charges in relation to RM2.3 billion of 1MDB funds.

“I am putting it to you that your testimony in the last three days has been tailored and perhaps even coached by the MACC, in order to implicate my client because they threatened to prosecute you if you don’t agree to it,” Shafee said during cross-examination today.

“I disagree,” Amhari said.

Ahmari, 43, was Najib’s special officer from 2008 to 2016, after which he joined Khazanah Nasional as a director.

Shafee earlier described Ahmari’s testimony that he was forced by Low Taek Jho to open a Singaporean account to be “a creation” of the witness’ imagination.

Shafee further suggested that Amhari, in fact, received US$800,000 in that account as a reward for previous work for Low, a claim which he denied.

The lawyer also suggested that Amhari has withheld other information from the trial, such as a payment of US$200,000 from Low, and that he was pressured by the MACC for his testimony.

Shafee: Don’t you feel threatened the MACC can take action any time?

Amhari: The question of being threatened comes from everywhere… The word threatened, in the true current context and with all due respect to my previous boss… in the current system, threatened is an understatement.

Shafee: You tell what MACC wants rather that the truth of the matter…

Amhari: I disagree.

Shafee: That is why you didn’t volunteer to tell them about the US$800,000 that you said Jho Low put into your account until MACC confronted you.

Amhari: I disagree. 

Amhari was referring to the US$884,996.78 (RM3.7 million), which was deposited in his BSI Switzerland account. The witness also denied lying about believing the account was used for political funding purposes, after Shafee said the amount was “peanuts” to help with an election.

Amhari also confirmed that he owned four properties in Petaling Jaya and Johor, but denied they had anything to do with Jho Low.

Shafee also asked the witness why he never expressed his grievances with Najib personally on Jho Low’s instruction to open the Singaporean account.

“You ‘bulat-bulat’ (fully) believed in Jho Low and did not bother to come back to tell your boss?”

Amhari responded that he was a subordinate to Najib’s principal private secretary, Azlin Alias.

“It was not easy to meet Najib at the time. There was no room to meet him,” he said.

The Singaporean account was registered under Aerosphere Ltd, a company in which Amhari was the single shareholder, the court was told earlier.

Najib is on trial for four counts of power abuse to enrich himself by RM2.3 billion and 21 counts of laundering the same amount.

The 66-year-old is represented by a dozen lawyers, led by Shafee.

Gopal Sri Ram, a former Federal Court judge, leads the prosecution while Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah presides. – September 5, 2019.