PETALING JAYA: Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad confirms that the RM2.6 billion that was channeled to former Prime Minister Najib`s personal bank account had come from 1MDB.
“As far as we know, it comes from 1MDB,” he said in a press conference, after having met Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel Ahmed Al-Jubeir yesterday.
Mahathir said the issue had been discussed in the meeting with Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel Ahmed Al-Jubeir who paid a courtesy call on him.
Adel had, in a meeting with Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah, said the RM2.6 billion donation had nothing to do with the Saudi Arabian government, which means: “Do not ask Saudi Arabia government, it has nothing to do with your 1MDB issue,” according to analyst.
However, Dr Mahathir said, what is important is the documentary proof, “whether the money came from 1MDB or from Saudi Arabia.”
“You can’t transfer huge sums of money without leaving a record.
“If they say it is from Saudi Arabia, show the records. If it is not from Saudi Arabia, we have to find out where it came from,” he said after chairing the party’s supreme council meeting at PPBM headquarters last night.
Najib claims he has the proof. He has recently posted some bank documents on his Facebook claiming that the funds were channelled to his bank account directly from the kingdom’s finance ministry and from the royal family.
Saudi Arabia `s finance ministry is part of the government. Isn`t it?
He also stated that Adel himself had, twice, said that Saudi Arabia had donated the money to him.
Two years ago, when the issue of 1MD was exposed, Adel told the media that Saudi Arabia donated billions of dollars to Najib, which is different from what he is saying now.
Adel u-turn has confused Malaysia Prime Minister and Malaysian people.
“We find it is sometimes difficult to hold foreign leaders to their word,” Dr Mahathir told the media.
“But I do not know what he is thinking.
“He (Adel) just said it is not true. That’s all,” he added.
Najib, in an interview with Aljazeera yesterday, claimed there were other international figures who were probably involved and must be probed.
“We want to know where the money flowed to. And who really benefited from the whole 1MDB issue. I would like to know too,” he said.
Najib had always maintained the money banked into his account was from a donation and did not come from 1MDB.
Najib insists, the money came from a member of the Saudi royal family to help Umno in its 2013 general election campaign.
However, yesterday he told Aljazeera that he had not actually verified the source of the RM2.6 billion donation banked into his personal account, believing it came from Saudi Arabia.
In the interview with Al Jazeera which will be aired today, Najib said he had assumed the donation was connected to Saudi Arabia after King Abdullah Abdulaziz Al Saud had assured him of his backing.
“The question is when I received the funds, was I aware of the source of the money… or whether the source of the money is in dispute as to who owns the funds. Certainly in my capacity I would not have access to banking knowledge.
“Because whoever owns the fund is protected by the secrecy of the banking laws so when I received the funds, in all honesty I thought it was a genuine donation and at that particular time, the knowledge that I had was based on a conversation with King Abdullah,” he told the news channel.
Kuala Lumpur sessions court has been recently slapped Najib with 45 charges related to money laundering, abuse of power, and corruption. His court trail will start next year.- Malaysia World News
