{"id":3952,"date":"2020-05-21T22:44:24","date_gmt":"2020-05-21T14:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=3952"},"modified":"2020-05-22T05:50:44","modified_gmt":"2020-05-21T21:50:44","slug":"witness-nasi-goreng-tale-suggests-close-ties-between-najib-and-jho-low","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=3952","title":{"rendered":"Witness nasi goreng tale suggests close ties between Najib and Jho Low"},"content":{"rendered":"
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KUALA LUMPUR, May 21 –\u00a0It was a light moment at the High Court today when it was told of a tale of\u00a0nasi goreng<\/em>\u00a0as former 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) chief executive officer (CEO) tried to describe\u00a0the reason why he trusted fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho or Jho Low and the latter\u2019s close relationship with\u00a0Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.<\/p>\n

Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, 50, said he was quite well known\u00a0for his ability to make\u00a0the best\u00a0nasi goreng<\/em>\u00a0and he had prepared the dish for Jho Low before.<\/p>\n

\u201cJho asked me if he could bring some for Datuk Seri Najib and I made him some to give to the former premier. He brought me feedback that Datuk Seri liked my\u00a0nasi goreng<\/em>, but I never get the chance to ask Datuk Seri personally,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The ninth prosecution witness said this during cross-examination by Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah representing Najib, who is facing corruption and money laundering charges involving RM2.3 billion of 1MDB funds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Shahrol Azral, who was 1MDB CEO from 2009 until 2013, said that was one of the events that gave him comfort knowing that Jho Low had access to Najib\u2019s home at any time.<\/p>\n

He said that Jho Low had also passed him the (telephone) numbers of Najib\u2019s assistants in Najib\u2019s Langgak Duta home.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThese are the small things that built up over time that made me believe that there is\u00a0a very close relationship (between Najib and Jho Low),\u201d the witness added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Muhammad Shafee: Did Najib ever said to you that that\u00a0nasi goreng<\/em>\u00a0was good?.<\/p>\n

Shahrol Azral: No, he did not.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Muhammad Shafee: So you had full confidence in Jho Low. Nothing made you question him?<\/p>\n

Shahrol Azral: Yes.<\/p>\n

The lawyer\u00a0then proceeded to ask the witness several more questions but went back to the fried rice, saying that he was also impressed with the story.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne day, I will make it for you,\u201d Shahrol Azral responded.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Shahrol Azral also said neither the management or the 1MDB board of directors had\u00a0seen the financial documents or audited account of Petrosaudi Oil Services Ltd (PSOSL) after 1MDB’s stakes acquisition from the company in early 2012.<\/p>\n

The stakes were supposedly a part of the liquidation process for 1MDB’s Murabahah notes that it had in a joint-venture with PetroSaudi International (PSI International), which however\u00a0was sold to Bridge Partners International Investments.<\/p>\n

The selling off of 1MDB 49 per cent stake in PSOSL to Bridge Partners also involved\u00a0Jho Low, 1MDB general counsel\u00a0Jasmine Loo and was allegedly authorised by Najib.<\/p>\n

Muhammad Shafee: I put it to you, this is an elaborate scam, no doubt by Jho Low, but it cannot operate alone without\u00a0minions under him, including you and Jasmine, and the management placed nicely by Jho Low.<\/p>\n

Shahrol Azral: I disagree.<\/p>\n

Muhammad Shafee: It is unlikely that the (then) PM (Najib) was involved because he himself was conned. He had to trust the management, he cannot micromanage.<\/p>\n

Shahrol: I cannot comment on what the PM knows or doesn’t know.<\/p>\n

Najib, 67, faces four charges of abusing his position to obtain gratification totalling RM2.3bil in 1MDB funds and 21 counts of money laundering involving the same money.<\/p>\n

The trial before Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues June 4.<\/p>\n

– BERNAMA<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KUALA LUMPUR, May 21 –\u00a0It was a light moment at the High Court today when…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[25,431,451,454,9936],"class_list":["post-3952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","tag-1mdb","tag-jho-low","tag-najib-razak","tag-shafee-abdullah","tag-shahrol-azral"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/191017_1mdb_mm.jpg",769,511,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/191017_1mdb_mm-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/191017_1mdb_mm-300x199.jpg",300,199,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/191017_1mdb_mm-768x510.jpg",640,425,true],"large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/191017_1mdb_mm.jpg",640,425,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/191017_1mdb_mm.jpg",769,511,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/191017_1mdb_mm.jpg",769,511,false],"newsium-slider-full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/191017_1mdb_mm.jpg",769,511,false],"newsium-featured":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/191017_1mdb_mm.jpg",769,511,false],"newsium-medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/191017_1mdb_mm.jpg",715,475,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"Crime<\/a>","tag_info":"Crime","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3952"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3955,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3952\/revisions\/3955"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}