Cross-examining Bakke during the 1MDB trial today, Shafee Abdullah said the witness claimed he had “voluminous” reasons to suspect Najib’s involvement in 1MDB but never wanted to clear the air with him.

“You don’t have much proof but then you suspected the prime minister. I say there is not even a reason for you to suspect,” he told Bakke.

“That was because you ‘merajuk’ (sulked) and you didn’t want to see the prime minister.”

Bakke replied:“‘Merajuk’ is the wrong choice of word. You can say what you like. I don’t feel comfortable seeing him (Najib).”

Shafee continued to press Bakke on his refusal to meet Najib and tell him what was really going on with 1MDB’s US$1 billion PetroSaudi International (PSI) joint venture.

The court heard that 1MDB entered into a joint venture with PSI and needed to fork out US$1 billion under the contract terms.

The US$1 billion was supposed to be deposited into the 1MDB-PSI joint venture account but only US$300 million was moved into this account, with the remaining US$700 million going into an account controlled by Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low.

Shafee: You only SMSed him (Najib) and it may not even have reached him. Do you agree that this is an unreasonable action?

Bakke: No comment.

The lawyer then asked Bakke if he was a “suspicious” person, which he laughed off by saying, “You seem to have intimate knowledge about Bakke”.

Bakke then complained to trial judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah that Shafee’s questions were akin to “taking me on a roller coaster ride”.

In jest, Shafee told the witness that he had “never been on a roller coaster” and assured him that the defence would not “take” him on one.

Najib is on trial for 25 charges of abuse of power and money laundering over 1MDB funds amounting to RM2.28 billion deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.

The hearing continues.