NAJIB Razak’s defence team told the Court of Appeal today that the prosecution and trial judge had relied on testimony of a prosecution witness last year, which was inadmissible and hearsay. 

This was because the witness, Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia (YR1M) chief executive officer Ung Su Ling, had testified of supposedly receiving instructions from Najib’s then principal private secretary – who had died in 2015 - to coordinate the transfer of RM42 million into the prime minister’s personal bank account, said lawyer Harvinderjit Singh. 

Harvinderjit said Ung had testified of receiving such instruction in a meeting with the principal private secretary Azlin Alias in September 2014, and this was followed up with WhatsApp instructions from him in December 2014 and February 2015.

The lawyer added that the prosecution had used Ung’s testimony on the involvement of Azlin to draw the inference that Najib was involved or had knowledge of the transactions.

Azlin died in a helicopter crash in April 2015 while Ung gave evidence in the Kuala Lumpur High Court in July 2019, where the prosecution did not produce the WhatsApp messages as evidence.

“The only evidence of Azlin being involved in the RM42 million transactions was the incredible testimony of Ung,” he told the appellate court. 

“The investigation officer, who was prosecution witness Rosli Husain, also conceded that apart from Ung’s words, there was no other evidence to prove Azlin’s involvement.

“Rosli eventually admitted that Ung’s and YR1M project director Dennis See’s statements were recorded after Azlin had died, and it was convenient for them to blame a dead man,” Harvinderjit said. 

Harvinderjit said that the instructions from Azlin to Ung were purportedly from WhatsApp messages, which were not produced in court.

In her testimony during the trial at the high court, Ung said she met Azlin in September 2014 to discuss YR1M issues as he was one of the foundation’s four trustees.

“Azlin told me that an undisclosed amount of money would be transferred to Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd for corporate and social responsibility programmes. 

“He asked for my assistance to inform the CEO of Ihsan Perdana (Shamsul Anwar Sulaiman) to transfer the money to an account,” she had said. 

Ung said that in December 2015, Azlin informed her through WhatsApp that RM32 million had been transferred into Ihsan Perdana’s account. Another RM10 million was deposited into Najib’s account in February 2016. 

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’ jail 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. 

The hearing continues tomorrow before a three-member Court of Appeal panel headed by Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil with justices Has Zanah Mehat and Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera. – April 7, 2021.