FORMER prime minister Najib Razak denied giving a “veiled direction” to former Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP) chairman Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Abdullah to expedite a RM2 billion loan to SRC International in 2011.

Najib, when reading from his witness statement today, was responding to testimony by Wan Abdul Aziz in July that Najib wanted the loan expedited, allegedly remarking that “RM2 billion was sufficient”.

SRC International initially applied for a RM3.95 billion loan in 2011.

However, of the sum requested, RM2 billion was approved and the government entity then requested another RM2 billion the following year.

In explaining the “RM2 billion was sufficient” remark, Najib told the court today that it was taken out of context because the RM3.95 billion loan request was reduced to RM2 billion.

Najib added that he does not recall making the remark, commenting that “it did not make sense for me to do so” because he had been informed previously KWAP was adjusting its loan to RM2 billion.

Najib also said that his request for KWAP to expedite its decision was to allow other government bodies to lend to SRC International should KWAP refuse to grant the loans.

“I do not have any power to direct the KWAP investment panel, whether by law or in practice,” he said in response Wan Abdul Aziz’s “veiled direction” testimony.

“I found that the investment panel never agreed to the RM2 billion loan,” Najib said, referring to minutes of a KWAP investment panel meeting on July 19, 2011

“How could my discussion with Wan Abdul Aziz be construed as an order?

“This is an intellectual dishonesty to equate the power to ‘hire and fire’ with the power to direct the KWAP investment panel to follow and obey any instruction that I give.”

Najib said the panel made its decision based on the merits of the application.

The former prime minister also denied instructing his late senior aide Azlin Alias to meet the then KWAP CEO Azian Mohd Noh at a hotel after working hours to hand over an application letter for the RM3.95 billion loan.

“I never directed him (Azlin) to meet Azian at the Hilton Hotel. This could be something that they arranged between themselves.”

Azian testified in May that she met with Azlin, a special officer who headed Najib’s economic policy team, sometime in June 2011.

“I was told by Azlin that the prime minister has agreed with the proposal from SRC International and I was referred to a handwritten notation on the letter that was (in) Najib’s (handwriting).”

The letter, dated June 3, 2011, was an application letter from SRC International, then owned by 1Malaysia Development Bhd, for a loan of RM3.95 billion from KWAP.

On that letter, Azian testified, was Najib’s handwritten notation: ‘Bersetuju dengan cadangan ini’ (Agree with this proposal). The notation was dated June 5, 2011.

Azlin died in 2015 in the helicopter crash that also killed former minister Jamaluddin Jarjis, who was a close associate of Najib.

The former prime minister and Pekan MP faces three counts of criminal breach of trust, three counts of money-laundering and one count of abuse of power.

The 66-year-old’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 accounts in 2014 and 2015.

Najib’s legal team is led by Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, while Attorney-General Tommy Thomas leads the prosecution.

The trial, before Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali, resumes tomorrow. – December 3, 2019.