The Malaysian Insight

FORMER 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi was instructed to leave the country by Najib Razak’s office to avoid a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) hearing in Parliament in 2015, the high court heard today.

The then 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy told him that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has instructed him to leave the country to avoid the first PAC meeting, Shahrol said at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

“Arul said the PMO wants us to hightail it out of the country before the meeting,” Shahrol said, adding that he left for Singapore.

To face the subsequent PAC hearings, Shahrol said he was then coached by PAC members, including committee chairman Hasan Arifin.

Shahrol said prior to the PAC hearing in 2015, he met Ahmad Farid Ridzuan, who is a PMO officer in charge of Najib’s image branding.

“I went to his house in Sri Hartamas (in Kuala Lumpur). During these meetings, some of the BN (Barisan Nasional) PAC members were also in attendance,” Sharol said, adding that among those present was Hasan.

He said the meeting was planned to coach him on the questions that the PAC would ask.

During the meetings at Farid’s house, Shahrol was told Najib was being politically attacked over the 1MDB scandal and the former CEO was instructed to downplay any role Najib had in 1MDB.

 Najib is on trial for four counts of power abuse to enrich himself with RM2.3 billion from 1MDB and 21 counts of laundering the same amount. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

The 66-year-old accused is represented by a dozen lawyers led by Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.

Former Federal Court judge Gopal Sri Ram leads the prosecution, while Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah presides. – October 1, 2019.