Testifying in the former prime minister’s 1MDB corruption trial, MACC investigating officer Nur Aida Arifin said she believed this to be the case despite observing some handwriting differences.
Cross-examined by lawyer Wan Azwan Aiman Wan Fakhruddin, the prosecution’s 49th witness admitted that the five documents were not shown to Najib when his statement was recorded in 2018.
Asked whether there were dissimilarities in the signature strokes on the documents, she said: “Yes, based on the strokes, there are differences.”
Wan Azwan: Were these five documents key to proving that the accused (Najib) abused his power when he gave approval to secure the US$975 million loan from Deutsch Bank?
Aida: Yes.
Wan Azwan: Najib was not allowed to explain if the signatures on the five documents were his?
Aida: Yes.
Earlier, deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib had objected to the line of questioning, pointing out that Aida was not a handwriting expert.
Trial judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah dismissed the objection, saying the witness could answer based on a visual observation.
Wan Azwan then suggested that MACC was sloppy in its investigations and had failed to record statements by Najib that were favourable to his defence.
In one of the charges he is facing, Najib is alleged to have abused his power as then finance minister, chairman of 1MDB’s board of advisors and sole shareholder of 1MDB to secure the US$975 million loan facility from the bank.
He is also accused of taking similar steps when seeking another US$250 million loan for 1MDB from the bank.
The prosecution claims that to prevent detection, Najib used a circuitous route which saw two transactions totalling RM44 million deposited into his accounts.
In its opening statement, the prosecution had claimed that Najib was in cahoots with fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low, to steal millions of ringgit from 1MDB. They also described Low as Najib’s mirror image.
Najib’s defence is that he believes all the money deposited into his accounts were donations from the Arab royal family.
He also claims that Low colluded with 1MDB’s board of directors and management to cause losses to the state sovereign fund.
Najib is standing trial for four charges of abuse of power and 21 for money laundering involving RM2.28 billion in 1MDB funds allegedly deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.
The trial continues on Monday.