Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib said Najib’s former aide, Amhari Efendi Nazaruddin, and former 1MDB general counsel Jasmine Loo had testified to receiving “something” from fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low.

“Can they be blamed? Both believed that they were acting on the instructions of Low and Najib’s principal private secretary, Azlin Alias, for the benefit of Najib and the nation,” he said in submissions at the close of the prosecution’s case.

Akram said former CEO of 1MDB Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, who was accused of having exceeded his authority, did what he was instructed to do as he had the backing of “heavyweight” Najib.

He was responding to submissions advanced by the defence that the testimony of key witnesses, including former Bank Negara governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Shahrol, Amhari and Loo, ought to be disregarded as they lacked credibility.

Defence lawyers had argued that the testimonies of these witnesses ought to be rejected as they testified against Najib to “save their own skin”.

“We submit that these witnesses are credible and their evidence ought to be accepted to prove the prosecution’s case,” Akram said.

He said Low, an important character in the charade, was not a fictitious person and had been identified by witnesses through photographs tendered in evidence during the trial.

“Jho Low was everywhere in the 1MDB saga that lasted for six years from 2009,” he said.

Akram said even Najib admitted in his caution statement to Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission investigators that he knew Low.

The fugitive financier, who left the county in 2018 and was last known to have been in Macau, is a wanted man, being the subject of several Interpol Red Notices.

In its opening statement, the prosecution claimed that Najib had been in cahoots with Low to steal millions of ringgit from 1MDB. The prosecution also described Low as Najib’s mirror image.

Deputy public prosecutor Kamal Baharin Omar said the money laundering charges were also sufficiently proven as Najib had engaged in acts that revealed his conduct.

“The identified amounts (monies) were proceeds of unlawful activities, and the accused knew the source of the proceeds,” he said.

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

The trial before Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues tomorrow.