Najib’s lawyer, witness in testy exchange
A prosecution witness got Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s lawyer all riled up with his pointed answers during crossexamination yesterday.
Amirul Imran Ahmat, former assistant vice-president of Retirement Fund Incorporated (KWAP), refused to be intimidated by the lawyer’s line of questioning and gave crisp answers when he was asked about subjects that were beyond his knowledge.
The 39-year-old, who stood his ground when bombarded with questions on Tuesday, was grilled again by lawyer Harvinderjit Singh yesterday.
Harvinderjit took him through a series of statements that he had given in his testimony.
He got the ball rolling by asking Amirul about a letter that was sent to KWAP on March 8, 2012.
The letter from the Finance Ministry was sent to the pension fund after its investment panel had approved a second loan to SRC International Sdn Bhd amounting to RM2 billion.
It contained information that the cabinet had agreed to stand as a guarantor for the loan to SRC International.
Harvinderjit asked the witness if the letter, which indicated the government’s decision, was a guarantee letter.
Amirul, however, disagreed with the contention and countered that it was not.
“It is just a letter, which says they want to guarantee, but it is not the actual guarantee letter itself.”
He attempted to explain further, but was cut short by the lawyer.
Harvinderjit asked if he was suggesting that the guarantee was not yet in place and Amirul agreed.
Both of them were again involved in an exchange when Harvinderjit proceeded to question him on the utilisation of the loan by SRC International.
Harvinderjit: Do you agree that to prove SRC was violating the terms of the utilisation of the loan, one needs to do a forensics auditing of the SRC account?
Amirul: You are asking if it can be done… of course, it can be done. But if you are asking if I did it, it’s not my job.
Harvinderjit and Amirul have been trading barbs since Tuesday after the former started questioning him from early morning over details of his witness statement.
At one point on Tuesday, Amirul, who was already looking irritated with the repeated questioning, had everyone sniggering when he passed a sarcastic remark during the second half of the day.
This happened when Harvinderjit, seeing that Amirul was looking slightly disinterested, said: “Are you still with me?”
Amirul responded by saying: “Sadly, yes.”
Amirul, who was the 29th prosecution witness in the trial, was released after completing his testimony.
The trial involves former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who is facing three counts of criminal breach of trust and one count of abuse of power over funds amounting to RM42 million linked to SRC International.
He is also facing three money laundering charges over the same funds.
He faces up to 20 years’ jail and a fine for the offences.
The trial continues.