FORMER foreign minister Anifah Aman is set to testify at the SRC International trial on Thursday regarding a 2010 meeting between Najib Razak and late Saudi ruler King Abdullah Abdul Aziz Al-Saud.

Lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah told Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali today that Anifah’s witness statement has yet to be finalised. 

The court also vacated tomorrow’s hearing.

Najib previously testified that it was at a meeting in Riyadh on January 11, 2010, when King Abdullah pledged financial assistance to help the then ruling government maintain power.

Anifah, the sixth defence witness, was alleged to have been present at the meeting along with former Malaysian ambassador to Saudi Arabia Syed Omar Syed Mohamad Al-Saggaf and former Islamic affairs minister Jamil Khir Baharom – both of whom have testified at the trial.

The defence is seeking to bolster Najib’s claim that King Abdullah had promised a donation which was to be used at the former prime minister’s discretion to fund Barisan Nasional’s campaign for the 2013 election.

Anifah, who quit Umno in September 2018, was a three-term MP for Kimanis. In the 2018 election, he won by 156 votes over Parti Warisan Sabah’s Karim Bujang.

His seat was subsequently declared vacant by the election court due to discrepancies.

The seat was won by Umno’s Mohamad Alamin, who beat Karim by 2,029 votes last month. – February 11, 2020.