Saudi king Abdullah was known for his generosity, says Najib Razak

Former Malaysian PM Najib Razak says a fugitive financier arranged huge ‘donations’ from the late Saudi king Abdullah.

Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak at the court house in Kuala Lumpur. Picture: AP

Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak has told a court it was fugitive financier Jho Low who arranged huge “donations” — ultimately amounting to at least $US680m — from the late Saudi king Abdullah into his personal bank accounts.

But he denied he had ever given authority to Mr Low, who remains in hiding, to deal with AmBank over his personal bank accounts.

Mr Najib was giving evidence for the second day in the first of several trials in relation to the ­alleged misappropriation of more than $US4.5bn from the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund that he ultimately oversaw as prime minister until his shock election defeat last year. The trial relates to the alleged siphoning of $14.7m into Mr Najib’s bank accounts from SRC International, a subsidiary of 1MDB, for which he faces seven charges.

On both days Mr Najib, facing 42 charges of corruption, money laundering and abuse of position, has sought to shift the blame to Mr Low for the multi-­billion-dollar 1MDB scandal. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The former premier has long insisted the hundreds of millions of dollars transferred to his ­accounts — which investigators say exceeded $US1bn — ­between 2011 and 2015 were a no-strings-attached gift from the late Saudi king.

Prosecutors allege the money was siphoned out of the 1MDB fund which was set up to help promote development in Malaysia but which they say became a slush fund for Mr Najib and his cronies.

He told Malaysia’s High Court on Wednesday that “between 2011 and 2014, I received a huge amount of money which I ­believed was a donation from King Abdullah as a sign of support from his majesty”.

“JL (Jho Low) was the go-­between in the matter and I ­believed that he arranged the ­allocation of the donations from the Saudi Arabian royal family,” he told the court, according to transcripts reported by the ­Malaysiakini website.

“Several letters on this ­donation were also received by AmBank and myself from JL at that time in line with the donations.”

Mr Najib also testified that Mr Low, whose real name is Low Taek Jho, had told him that King Abdullah admired Malaysia’s model of moderate Islam and had facilitated meetings between the former prime minister and King Abdullah.

“According to Jho Low, King Abdullah wanted to confer me with the highest civilian honour in Saudi Arabia, which was the King Abdulaziz Order of Merit (1st Class),” an award he received in January 2010, he said.

Mr Najib said he wasn’t surprised by the size of the donation as the Saudi royal family was known for its generosity.

He also sought to discredit the earlier testimony of his former deputy finance minister Husni Hanadzlah, whom he had transferred out of the ministry to the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) in 2016.

Mr Husni testified he had been barred by Mr Najib from going to Switzerland to check on the bank accounts of SRC International after they were frozen by the country’s authorities over alleged money laundering. But Mr Najib told the court Mr Husni had never formally asked to go and the matter was already being dealt with.

“I believe that Husni had kept his dissatisfaction against me over my decision to transfer him from Ministry of Finance to the EPU, as he had immediately ­resigned after that in 2016. And he used the witness box as a stage to air his grouses openly,” he said.