Hafaz Nazar told Najib’s 1MDB trial that he and his MACC colleagues travelled to Saudi Arabia at the end of 2015 to meet one “Prince Saud Abdulaziz Al-Saud” at a Saudi Arabian palace.
The then MACC assistant investigating officer was joined by Nasharudin Amir, Fikri Ab Rahim, their superior Azam Baki who is currently the MACC chief, and then deputy public prosecutor Dzulkifli Ahmad.
The team was there to investigate four purported “donation letters” said to have been signed and sent by the “prince” to Najib, dated between Feb 1, 2011 and June 1, 2014.
Hafaz said he was tasked with recording statements from “Saud” through a legal representative, Abdullah Al Koman, and fugitive Tan Kim Loong, who happened to be there.
“Abdullah gave us (Hafaz and Nasharudin) a statutory declaration from ‘Saud’.
“In his declaration, ‘Saud’ said he was unable to locate the supporting bank documents on the transaction (of the RM2.6 billion donation),” he said, adding that he could only extract the declaration’s contents and incorporate them into the MACC witness statement.
Tan had also furnished the MACC officers with a copy of his own statutory declaration.
When asked by deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib if he had asked Abdullah for photocopies of the passport belonging to “Saud”, Hafaz said the request was made but rejected.
Akram: Did you ask them further questions based on their statutory declarations?
Hafaz: We informed them that they could say additional things, but they told us that what they wanted to say was already in the declarations.
IGP seeks to set aside subpoena to testify
Earlier today, the court was told that a subpoena was issued to Inspector-General of Police Razarudin Husain this week.
Home ministry legal adviser Ilmami Ahmad said they received the subpoena on Monday but that it did not mention why Razarudin’s presence was needed.
Lawyer Wan Azwan Aiman Wan Fakhruddin said they wanted Razarudin to appear and inform the court about ex-banker Roger Ng’s whereabouts as well as the status of former 1MDB general counsel Loo Ai Swan’s arrest warrants.
Ilmami said they would file an application to set aside the subpoena.
The hearing continues on April 17, when the court will hear another bid to set aside a subpoena issued to the director-general in charge of the government’s witness protection programme.
Najib is standing trial on 25 charges of abuse of power and money laundering over funds amounting to RM2.28 billion deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.