NAJIB Razak’s SRC International trial enters its 34th day today, with the 43rd witness, former Finance Ministry officer Maliami Hamad returning to the stand.

The 65-year-old was the ministry’s former loans management, financial markets and actuary division secretary.

He told the court yesterday that he was pressured by high-ranking officials, who answered to former prime minister Najib Razak, to expedite government guarantees for RM4 billion loans to SRC International.

Maliami told the court he had to prepare the two government guarantees in 2011 and 2012 quicker than he normally would because he was told they had received Najib’s “special attention”.

On the 2011 guarantee, Maliami said the pressure came not only came from SRC International but also from then Treasury secretary-general Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Abdullah.

The pressure also came from Najib’s principal private secretary, the late Azlin Alias. Maliami said the men received instructions from Najib to expedite the guarantees.

The first government guarantee was approved on August 26, 2011, and the first loan was disbursed from Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP) to SRC International on August 29, 2011.

The witness said he was approached on January 27, 2012, by the SRC International officials, led again by CEO Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil.

The officials again asked him to expedite a government guarantee for a second loan of RM2 billion.

However, the second loan was disbursed before the second government guarantee was prepared and KWAP then relied on a letter of comfort from the ministry that the guarantee was forthcoming and that the loan could be approved.

The second loan of RM2 billion to SRC International was disbursed on March 28, 2012.

Najib’s charges are linked to RM4 billion in loans issued to SRC International in 2011 and 2012, for 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 Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.

Attorney-General Tommy Thomas is leading the prosecution, while justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali is the presiding judge.

The Malaysian Insight brings you today’s proceedings live:

5.12pm: Court adjourns for the day, with Mat Noor’s cross-examination to continue tomorrow.

4.51pm: Harvinderjit questions Mat Noor about how the memo was written and what processes were undertaken in its making.

4.15pm: Harvinderjit says that it does not matter where the minister signs the documents, as long as he signs them, to show they are approved.

The witness agrees.

3.50pm: Mat Noor says MoF Inc is an entirely separate entity.

He adds that in 2011 and 2012, the finance minister and finance minister 2 were in charge of MoF Inc. During that period, Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah was finance minister 2.

3.39pm: Harvinderjit continues his cross-examinination of Mat Noor.

Mat Noor says he never prepared a witness statement after having his statement taken by the MACC. 

Mat Noor is one of only a few witnesses that does not have a witness statement.

He says he had a meeting with the prosecution team last week, in which they asked him to verify some documents and sought the reasons as to why the memorandum was created.

3.14pm: Judge Nazlan calls for a recess.

2.57pm: Mat Noor says he approached Najib to show him the draft of the letter while the latter was at the airport in Subang. He says Najib studied the draft and signed it then and there.

1.05pm: Mat Noor says the draft letter did not have a letterhead either.

He says he had to go back to the office to make another version with official stamps and letterheads.

1pm: Mat Noor tells the court that he went to the airport to give Najib the letter of request for the change of ownership of SRC International from 1MDB to MoF Inc.

He says, to his surprise, Najib signed it and wrote that he agreed with the suggestion. He adds that the document had no official stamp on it.

12.35pm: Mat Noor says there was a request by then EPU chief Nor Yakcop to put SRC International under the umbrella of MoF Inc instead of 1MDB.

He says the EPU did not hand in a formal request for this in writing.

12.30pm: The next witness taking the stand Mat Noor Nawi, 64, a retired civil servant. He tells the court that he was deputy treasury secretary-general (policy) at the Finance Ministry before he retired.

He oversaw three departments, one of which was MoF Inc. His main task was to supervise the 100 companies underneath MoF Inc.

They monitored the financial statements of these companies quarterly.

They also monitored the companies’ activities including investments, for which they must get prior approval from MoF Inc.

12.22pm: The witness is allowed to leave the stand.

11.51am: The instructions came from Najib because the communications came from the higher-ups, Maliami said.

Grants were not used for working capital as SRC International had requested.

Grants are usually given to new companies to enable them to begin operations. He said SRC International received a grant from the Economic Planning Unit for RM20 million.

11.49am: Maliami said he was pressured and clarified that the term “pressured” meant that it was stressful because the officers had to create the memorandum quicker than usual.

There was no malice when he used the word “pressure” in the statement, he said.

11.33am: Maliami said he an issue with the guarantee letter because SRC stated the wrong reason for the loan. That had to be rectified.

10.39am: Maliami said MoF inc was not under his scope of work and therefore, he can’t comment on it.

9.55am: He also met Nik Faisal at the Ministry of Finance.

At that meeting on January 27, 2012, Nik Faisal brought some officers but he doesn’t recall them.

9.53am: The memorandum was tabled and the minutes of the cabinet meeting a week later were also tabled.

9.49am: Referring to the memorandum, Maliami read out the purpose of the loan which was to invest in natural resources.

The witness said the loan was not to pay for operational costs and funding for that could have been obtained from grants or other government assistance.

Maliami said he doesn’t know if the loan was used for any other purpose than what was stated in the memorandum.

9.46am: Maliami said a cabinet meeting memorandum, which is to be tabled to seek the cabinet’s approval for SRC International’s first RM2 billion loan, was forwarded to then minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nor Mohamed Yakcop for his consideration and signature.

9.34am: While cross-examined by defence counsel Farhan Read, Maliami confirms he first met SRC International officials on August 12, 2011 in relation to a RM2 billion loan.

9.21am: Court is in session. The trial’s 43rd witness, former Finance Ministry officer Maliami, takes the stand. – July 9, 2019.