NAJIB Razak’s SRC International trial enters its 32nd day today, with the 42th witness, former SRC International director Suboh Md Yassin returning to the stand.

He is to be cross-examined for the third time after suggesting yesterday that SRC International CEO Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil could have forged signatures to carry out millions in bank transactions because he was “emboldened” by a “mountain behind him”.

Suboh Md Yassin has been peppered with suggestions by the defence since Monday if it was Nik Faisal who had forged signatures on bank letters of instruction.

Suboh said during cross-examination yesterday that Nik Faisal could only have done so because there was a higher authority backing him.

He did not disclose the identity of the “mountain”.

The 66-year-old also told the court yesterday he gave statements to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission that contradicted one another.

During his first questioning in Abu Dhabi on November 27, 2015, he said his signatures on about a dozen Real Time Electronics Transfer of Funds and Securities (Rentas) letters of instruction to AmIslamic Bank were genuine.

When questioned in Pullman Hotel, Putrajaya, by the MACC on May 28 and 30 last year, Suboh said they were not genuine.

Again, Suboh reversed his statement and said the signatures were genuine when questioned at the MACC headquarters, Putrajaya, on August 13 and 15 last year.

Lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said that the final reversal occurred after Najib was charged with criminal offences related to SRC International.

Yesterday, Suboh told the court that it was possible that his signature was forged on Rentas documents.

Suboh said he made contradictory statements because he could not remember whether it was the hard copies or scanned documents of Rentas instruction forms carrying his signatures that were shown to him by the MACC.

However, he said his signatures were forged after the defence demonstrated the similarity of the signatures on a dozen scanned documents. He added it was also possible his signature on the hard copies were forged, including possibly by Nik Faisal. 

Nik Faisal remains missing and is believed to be residing in Indonesia, according to reports. 

Najib’s charges in this trial relate to the RM4 billion in loans issued to SRC International in 2011 and 2012, from which he is accused of receiving RM42 million in his personal accounts in 2014 and 2015.

He faces three counts of criminal breach of trust, three counts of money-laundering and one count of abuse of power.

Najib, 66, is represented by a dozen lawyers led by Shafee.

Attorney-General Tommy Thomas leads the prosecution while Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali presides over the trial at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

The Malaysian Insight brings you today’s proceedings live:

5.30pm: Court adjourned until Monday.

5.04pm: Suboh says he was not aware that RM4 billion had come in from KWAP and went out on two occasions.

4.55pm: Suboh says he does not remember signing any document to authorise any funds from the RM2 billion KWAP loan to go out of SRC International’s accounts.

4.36pm: After a recess, Harvinderjit asks Suboh about the setting up of SRC International.

3.14pm: Suboh says whenever he had to sign the director circular resolutions, he would go to the office to do so without anyone present.

2.56pm: Suboh says none of the board members were signatories to an AmBank account ending in “736”.

2.53pm: Proceedings continue with Suboh taking the stand. Harvinderjit cross-examines Suboh about SRC International’s accounts.

2.47pm: Najib is back in court.

12.35pm: Mohd Nazlan says court is adjourned until 2.45pm today but proceedings will only end at 5.30pm.

12.34pm: Shafee says the defence is filing an appeal in the Federal Court and the appellate court to argue that an MP must be able to perform his statutory duty.

12.30pm: Shafee now addresses Mohd Nazlan, asking if Najib can attend a parliamentary briefing and come back for the trial by 2.45pm.

Shafee is making an application, and Sithambaram does not object to it, but warns that they must be punctual.

12.28pm: Suboh says he had no knowledge of the account ending with “736”, and that this was a secret account.

He says there was no way he could have signed money going out of this account because he did not know about it.

12.24pm: Suboh agrees with Harvinderjit that it was fraud.

Harvinderjit: This is deception and fraud, this is someone with no clout who was flouting his power. Agreed? (referring to Nik Faisal)

Suboh: Yes, But I don’t know what motivated him.

Harvinderjit: We will see when he confesses.

12.20pm: Suboh agrees with the statement that on August 29, 2011, six days after SRC International’s first ever board meeting, RM2 billion came in four tranches of RM500 million each. And on the same day, the money goes out in three tranches.

He says he was not aware where the RM2 billion loan from KWAP went.

12.14pm: Harvinderjit is now walking Suboh through SRC International’ AmBank account ending with ‘736’.

Suboh says from January 2011 to August 2015, all of the money that came in and went out of the account were beyond his knowledge as a member of the board of directors.

11.45pm: Suboh says when he raised objections to actions taken by Nik Faisal, the latter had always said that it will be taken care of by “orang atas”.

Harvinderjit: Did he say that “orang atas” meant Najib? 

Suboh: No, he did not.

11.30am: Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has arrived at the Kuala Lumpur court complex to support both Najib and former minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, who is involved in another graft trial.

He has entered the courtroom and is seated in the public gallery, behind Najib, who sits in the dock.

Zahid is dressed in a grey suit and entered alone.

11.20am: Suboh says a “Datuk Azhar Osman Khairuddin” took over from Nik Faisal as company CEO in 2014.

Suboh says his son was party to a project management team lead by Azhar for SRC International to carry out development projects.

The projects were the Sabah Gas Pipeline project and a national strategic coal initiative. Both were projects of national importance.

He says as of September 1, 2014 the management of SRC was run by Azhar and not Nik Faisal.

Suboh says he cannot tell if any hire or fire notice was made against Nik Faisal by Najib, who was prime minister at the time.

Harvinderjit: Nik Faisal’s power as a CEO, as the man on top, had to come to an end on September 1? 

Suboh: Not necessarily so, he was still there as an executive director.

11.15am: Harvinderjit asks Suboh if he knew that the board decided not to continue Nik Faisal’s tenure as SRC International CEO when Suboh was still director? Suboh says yes. 

Harvinderjit asks if he knew the reason for this?

Suboh says that the board might have been unhappy with him, but sounded unsure.

Harvinderjit brings out minutes from an SRC board meeting. An excerpt from the minutes says that the board was disappointed with the non-filing of audited financial statements.

The board has been misrepresented, and only found out about this from a report by The Edge. It also says that the chairman emphasised the importance of corporate governance.

Suboh: Here is an expression of displeasure of the board at the non-submission of audited financial statements. When I expressed my views on how I see the board, how Nik Faisal behaved, it’s in different context. 

Harvinderjit: Now we’re going wishy washy on the whole thing.

10.30am: Suboh says that if he had views to the contrary, he would have to express them at the board meetings.

10.10am: Suboh says he does not know how Ismee Ismail became SRC International chairman. Suboh also says he was unaware that SRC International shares were registered in 1MDB’s name.

Suboh says on most days, he never knew who were the management of SRC International.

He recalls meeting Terence Geh but did not know whether he was part of SRC International.

Suboh says SRC International’s office was in Menara Brdb bangsar, he would usually go to the office for board meetings.

Suboh: There were staff in the office, but I don’t know what they were doing there. 

Harvinderjit: It’s the same as Nik Faisal, isn’t it? You didn’t know what Nik Faisal was doing. 

Suboh: Yes, it’s the same.

Harvinderjit: Was there any time in the meetings that you were not free to voice your opinion. 

Suboh: I wouldn’t put it that way, we were free to say anything.

Harvinderjit: At the meeting, you must contribute and say something. 

Suboh: Yes, you must say.

10.00am: Suboh says even if he had signed any documents, it was done on the authorisation of Nik Faisal.

Harvinderjit tells Nazlan that in the interest of time, he will use the same line of questioning he used for SRC’s chairman Ismee Ismail and will not rely so much on Suboh’s oral testimony yesterday. Nazlan agrees.

9.50am: Harvinderjit asks Suboh of his knowledge of Aabar-SRC Strategic Resources Ltd.

Suboh says he is not familiar with the venture nor with its directors and he only has knowledge of general matters.

9.42am: Harvinderjit suggests that the board of directors never looked at the actual statement of accounts, whether of SRC International or Gandingan Mentari.

The lawyer suggests that to remove money from the accounts it would require the approval of its signatories.

He then reminds Suboh that the latter had testified that he was not aware of transactions involving SRC International funds.

Harvinderjit contends that money was being moved without Suboh’s knowledge.

9.40am: Defence counsel Harvinderjit Singh continues his cross-examination of Suboh on matters relating to hard copies of letters of instructions to AmIslamic Bank.

Attorney-General Tommy Thomas objects to Harvinderjit’s reference to the signatures as forgeries, saying they have yet to be proven so, and that there could be other explanations.

Suboh is shown six hard copies by the defence and is asked to compare them with other samples of his signature.

Suboh described one of the six hard copy signatures as appearing “simplified”.  – July 3, 2019.