A RM4 billion loan from Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP) to SRC International Sdn Bhd was stolen, lawyers representing Najib Razak told the Court of Appeal today.

Defence counsel Harvinderjit Singh said the sum was transferred out of the country immediately after SRC International received it, calling it a “theft”.

This prompted appellate court judge Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera – joined on the bench by judges Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil, Has Zanah Mehat – to ask who had directed the transfer and how it was made.

“How did the SRC board make a decision on the RM4 billion?” the judge asked.

Harvinderjit said it is not known who was behind the transfer and there was no evidence of the transfer either.

KWAP, based on two government guarantees, gave SRC International the loan in 2011 and 2012 to invest in projects associated with conventional and renewable energy resources, natural resources and minerals.

“This is nagging on my mind, you say it is theft, but no police report was made?” Vazeer said.

“No,” Harvinderjit said, adding that those responsible should be former SRC chairman Ismee Ismail and former CEO Suboh Md Yassin, who were both signatories.

The lawyer reiterated that Najib, as the former prime minister, had no part in it since he was not involved in the company’s management of funds. SRC was a subsidiary of 1Malaysia Development Fund Bhd, which Najib oversaw.

Outside the courtroom, senior counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah repeated the defence’s position that the loan given to SRC was “theft”, for which Najib was not responsible.

“How do you move the money when my client was not even entrusted with the funds?

“It was an act of theft, a criminal act by individuals and insiders in the company,” he told a press conference after the appeal hearing.

Najib is appealing against his conviction and sentence for abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money laundering of RM42 million of SRC funds.

He was sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined RM210 million after he was found guilty of all seven charges by High Court Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali in July last year.

The case continues on Monday. – April 8, 2021.