The former prime minister, who was ousted from power in May 2018, said he needed funds to support the three million Umno members and the then ruling Barisan Nasional(BN) government.
“I wanted a source of income to make me independent. I was more comfortable if I did not take corporate donations as I did not want to be indebted to anyone,” he said when re-examined by lawyer Harvinderjit Singh.
The lawyer sought clarification from Najib as the prosecution had suggested to him (Najib) that he needed money to buy votes to remain in power.
“So I was relieved to get the donation from the Arab royal family instead of local corporate donors,” Najib said, adding that his predecessor who led Umno and the BN government had also collected political funds.
Najib, who was prime minister from April 2009 to May 2018, said the funds were also utilised for publicity purposes and to support the 222 parliamentary constituencies.
Najib, who is the first defence witness, said he knew donations were going into his account from 2011 to 2013 due to letters from the royal family.
“Based on the letters, I believed the money was coming from the then Saudi ruler King Abdullah Abdul Aziz Al-Saud through various channels,” he added.
Najib, however, had been repeatedly saying that he was not informed of the specific amount that was deposited into his bank accounts as that was left to his former private secretary, the late Azlin Alias.
It was revealed in evidence that in 2011, Najib had received almost US$100 million from Prince Faisal and the finance ministry in Riyadh, and in 2012, he obtained another US$270 million from Prince Faisal and Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners.
In 2013, he is said to have received US$681 million but returned US$620 million after the general election that year.
The prosecution’s case is that all the money came from state investor 1MDB after passing through numerous overseas bank accounts.
The prosecution also said that Najib closed the account in August 2013 after he no longer received the purported Arab donations and the balance of RM162 million was transferred to a new account.
However, only a balance of RM848,000 from the RM162 million was left as of September 2014.
Najib is accused of abusing his power as prime minister by giving government guarantees on SRC International’s RM4 billion loan from Retirement Fund Inc.
He is also charged with three counts of money laundering and three counts of criminal breach of trust in the transfer of RM42 million to his accounts from the former 1MDB unit.
The prosecution is saying that he had knowledge that the RM42 million came from SRC International where RM32 million was used to pay Putra Perdana Construction Sdn Bhd and Permai Binaraya Sdn Bhd in December 2014.
Another RM10 million that was deposited into his account in February 2015 was used to pay individuals and political parties.
The defence is saying that the RM42 million was part of the Arab money and rogue bankers worked with fugitive financier Low Taek Jho to manipulate his accounts.
Hearing continues before judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali.