Najib’s family starts legal process to claim belongings from police

KUALA LUMPUR: The family of Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has started the legal process to claim their belongings valued between RM900 million and RM1.1 billion from the police.

The former prime minister’s family maintains the seizures by the police are mostly gifts from friends, foreign dignitaries including royalty during various occasions including official visits and family events such as birthdays, anniversaries, weddings and engagements.

“Some of the items seized belong to relatives and various third parties.

“We dispute the quantity and the valuation given in the press conference by the police since such valuation is subjective and is subject to when the gifts were given,” Najib said in a statement that he posted on Facebook and Twitter yesterday.

He went on to say as most of the items were gifts accumulated over the decades, the family is not aware of how much was paid by those who had gifted these items.

Najib said any valuation based on retail price and at current prices would be unrealistic, likely to be grossly inflated and would give a very distorted picture as those items were received as gifts over a period that spans decades.

He cited an example that the police had stated in their press conference that the most expensive watch was a Rolex Daytona which they say is valued at RM3.4 million.

“This item referred by the police appears to be a recent gift along with several other valuables given by the Interior Minister, who is also a prince of a Middle Eastern country who visited Malaysia in March this year.

“The police should also have stated that this item along with several others were contained in a box with the royal crest of a foreign country. This fact should not have been omitted,” he said.

Najib also pointed out that many of the items seized were contained in boxes properly labelled by staff members with the item description, photographs, date of gift and the identity of the persons who gave the gift.

“Should the police call our family for questioning over this matter, we will provide our full cooperation. To the best of our ability, we shall help the police identify those who have given the gifts over the decades.

“Similar to the over-inflating of the national debt, the overinflating of the quantity and value of the items seized as well as the press conference appears to be done with a view for political vengeance and political attack on my family,” he said.

On Wednesday, the value of items seized in connection with the investigation on the former prime minister amounted to RM900 million to RM1.1 billion, said Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Datuk Seri Amar Singh Ishar Singh. — Bernama