THE transfers of RM42 million from SRC International Sdn Bhd into Najib Razak’s bank account were done on the behest by fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, or better known as Jho Low, his defence team told the Court of Appeal today.

Defence lawyer Harvinderjit Singh said Low’s ability to SRC transact funds was material in the case.

“It leads to the inference that the funds in SRC were misappropriated by other persons,” he said in his submissions before a three-member Court of Appeal bench led by Justice Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil.

The two other judges on the bench were Has Zanah Mehat and Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera.

“It also reveals that there was no act by Najib as an agent of SRC International, which caused any funds in the SRC accounts to be disbursed out,” he added.

As Harvinderjit continued to explain the evidence of Low’s control over the movement of the money, Justice Karim asked for the reason for Low to put money into Najib’s account.

In response to this, Harvinderjit said, “only Jho Low can answer the why”.

Harvinderjit also told the court that Low had arranged for the funds to be transferred into Najib’s account as a knee jerk reaction when Joanna Yu Ging Ping, a former AmBank Islamic Bhd relationship manager, had informed him that Najib’s account was in overdrawn positions.

 “The bank would dishonour cheques issued therefrom unless funds were immediately transferred to regularise the accounts.

“Jho Low therefore arranged for the funds to be transferred to IPSB (Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd) and caused PW49 (prosecution witness 49, Ung Su Ling, former CEO of Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia) to effect transfers from IPSB to the 880 account (Najib’s account ending 880),” the lawyer said.

The Court of Appeal was hearing Najib’s appeal against his conviction and jail sentence for misappropriation of SRC International funds.

On July 28 last year, Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali convicted and sentenced Najib to 12 years’ imprisonment and fined him RM210 million over the SRC International criminal case.

Najib has submitted 307 grounds in his petition of appeal on why he should be cleared of the charges. The Pekan MP is currently on bail of RM2 million in two sureties pending appeal.

Earlier at the start of the trial, reporters in the media room once again experienced disrupted connectivity to the live streaming of the proceedings.

Karim was heard vaguely through the speakers addressing the defence team to explain that the disruption was not done on purpose.

Similar problems had also occurred during yesterday’s hearing.

The Palace of Justice released a statement that the interruption yesterday did not affect the recording of the appeal proceedings in the open court.

 “All lawyers and public prosecutors were provided with a soft copy of the recording of the proceedings after the proceedings ended,” it said. – April 7, 2021.