A key witness in the 1MDB case against former Malaysian PM Najib Razak said he only took orders from the fallen leader who had all the powers to create instability in his life. He denied he took orders from fugitive 1MDB mastermind Jho Low.
Amhari Efendi Nazaruddin, 43, said although his former boss had never personally threatened him, he felt as if he was ‘stuck in the middle’.
He told the courts on Thursday Najib, as the prime minister, had the influence and full support to create chaos in his life.
The former special officer to Najib who is the 8th prosecution witness also said, “Either route, whichever way I take, there will be threats. What I need to do is to go back to my religion. Tell the truth and hoping that would save me.”
Amhari, when questioned by Sri Ram, said the threats could be from any stakeholders in this trial, regardless of whoever and whichever group they are.
“One of the stakeholders is the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission. Do you include them?” he was asked, he replied ‘No’, but was hesitant and replied with a trailed off voice when pressed to reveal what he meant by ‘stakeholders’.
He finally said it was the current ruling government or the previous regime of Najib Razak after the prosecutor said no one will touch him in the courts and he should not be afraid.
During Najib’s official visits to New York and London, Jho Low would meet the former prime minister in a hotel room.
Sri Ram was questioning the witness on whether he was indebted to Jho Low and not to Najib and whether he was Jho Low’s accomplice in misleading Najib.
“During the cross-examination, it was put to you that you were indebted to Jho Low, that you were his accomplice, and that you misled the Prime Minister and you disagreed. Can you explain to court why?”
Amhari said, “Over and over again, I worked for Datuk Seri Najib, I took orders from the Prime Minister, not from Jho Low.”
The prosecution told Amhari Najib’s defence team said he was taking orders from Jho Low. “But you said No. Can you explain?”
Amhari said that he concluded from previous instances that whatever Jho Low said was from Najib. He said he noticed that the former prime minister had always agreed with Jho Low’s suggestions.
“Sometimes, when I did check with him (Najib), after the death of Datuk Azlin Alias, I found that he would definitely agree with Jho Low,” said Amhari.
Azlin Alias was also a special officer to Najib but he was killed in a helicopter crash in 2016.
Najib, 66, is facing four charges of abusing his position to get RM2.3 billion of 1MDB funds and 21 counts of money laundering. -/TISG