Najib says took selfie with King Salman who didn’t raise anything about Saudi ‘donation’

Najib says took selfie with King Salman who didn’t raise anything about Saudi ‘donation’



Datuk Seri Najib Razak (right) and Saudi Arabia’s King Salman pose for a photograph together on Feb 27, 2017. — Picture from Facebook/Najib Razak

Friday, 13 Dec 2024 12:12 PM MYT


KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 13 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak today said current Saudi ruler King Salman had not mentioned anything about his claim to have received donations from the previous Saudi ruler King Abdullah during a 2017 “selfie” moment in Malaysia.

Testifying in his trial over 1MDB’s stolen RM2 billion funds, Najib told the High Court that the Saudi royal family and the Saudi government had never officially denied his claim that the money in his AmIslamic bank accounts were Saudi donations.


“Yang Arif, King Salman during his official visit to Malaysia in 2017 did not raise anything about the donation from King Abdullah. In his open meets and even in my private meetings with him, he did not raise anything,” he said when replying to his lead defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.

“Even when I was in the car with him, Yang Arif, I sat in the car with him and I managed to take a selfie with King Salman which was rather unprecedented, he didn’t raise anything. He could have at that time, it was just the two of us,” he said.


Shafee: Did he for instance in those private moments with you, he said – he never confronted you with this issue – but did he even suggest or hint, ‘Najib, let’s tone down, don’t make too much statements’?


Najib: Yang Arif, he never said anything about that, but if I may share with the court, he went to the extent of allowing me to enter the house of Kaaba and Prophet Muhammad’s tomb, which is very, very difficult and almost unprecedented to allow a head of government to enter into Prophet Muhammad’s makam.

“So if King Salman was displeased with me in any way, first of all, would he have visited Malaysia? Number two, would he have allowed investment from Aramco into Pengerang? Would he have allowed me to enter the Kaaba and tomb of Prophet Muhammad?

“I mean his actions indicated, on the contrary, he was very pleased with Malaysia.

“I meant to get the King of Saudi Arabia to visit your country itself is a huge achievement itself!” Najib exclaimed as he emphasised what a huge achievement this was.

“He hardly travels overseas. To get him to visit Malaysia is a huge acknowledgment of the strong ties we enjoy with the Saudi government even after King Abdullah’s time,” he added.

Asked how publicised 1MDB was in 2017, Najib said: “It was raging, it was all over, it’s impossible for him not to have seen it or understood the gravity.”

Earlier, Shafee asked: “To this day, given the facts that you have made it public, I think the whole world knows that your defence among others, that these funds that came into your private account were donations either from the Saudi Kingdom or King Abdullah himself or both, this is loud and clear. Has there been any letter, any demand from the Kingdom or its monarchy to tell you to stop making this allegation?”

Najib: “Yang Arif, first of all there has been no public statement nor denial. Secondly, there have been no approaches to me when I was in office or when I left office, there have been no approaches from anyone from the Saudi government or from the Saudi royal family to say otherwise, to protest or to deny that the funds were linked to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or King Abdullah himself.”

Earlier today, Najib repeatedly said that both Saudi Arabia and its royal family had not made any official statement to deny that the billions in his bank accounts were donations from King Abdullah.

“In contrast, despite the intense scrutiny surrounding the funds I received and allegations questioning their legitimacy, there has been no official statement, neither from the Royal Household nor from the Saudi government, denying that these funds were a donation from His Majesty King Abdullah.

“This absence of denial, even in the face of such high-profile allegations, supports my genuine belief that the funds were legitimate donations. It is consistent with how governments or monarchies typically respond when claims are unfounded,” he said.

Najib today referred to then Saudi foreign minister Adel Al-Jubeir’s 2016 confirmation of a donation from Saudi Arabia, and said the former minister has not made any “direct or official statement” to withdraw his earlier confirmation of the donation.

In October 2018, national news agency Bernama reported Malaysia’s then foreign minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Abdullah as saying that Al-Jubeir had stated that the RM2.6 billion — which Najib claimed to have received as a donation — had nothing to do with the Saudi government.

But Najib said this denial that the funds were a donation to him was not directly from Al-Jubeir but “rather an opposition politician”, in apparent reference to Saifuddin who is now in the federal opposition.

Najib also claimed that King Abdullah had in their January 2010 meeting said he would be giving donations as a “personal gift given directly to me”, adding that he believed it was best to open a personal bank account for the funds instead of having it sent to a political organisation.

“I understand it as my responsibility to ensure that the funds were managed appropriately so opening a private personal bank account was the most suitable way to safeguard and administer the donation entrusted to me by His Majesty.

“This arrangement would allow me to support my political and CSR activities while avoiding any potential complications that might arise if the funds were directed to a political organisation,” he said, later adding that he had issued cheques to spend the money for political and corporate social responsibility (CSR) purposes.

Today, Shafee informed the High Court that he had sent a letter on December 10 to the attorney general, the Inspector-General of Police, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief to say why former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng is of interest to Najib’s lawyers as a possible witness in the 1MDB trial and to ask to interview him.

Shafee said he will only make an application to the High Court for an interview with Ng after receiving a response to the letter, while deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib confirmed that the prosecution received this letter today and that the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) has yet to meet on this.

Before the end of today’s court proceedings, Akram highlighted to the High Court that Najib’s lawyers were expected to hold a press conference after the hearing, while Shafee said he would be explaining what Najib testified in court today and said he would go ahead with the press conference.

Judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah gave a reminder that the press conference should remain within its limits and not stray into matters that are sub judice or matters still being considered by the court in the ongoing 1MDB trial.

Najib’s 1MDB trial is scheduled to resume on January 6 next year.