KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 1 — The way former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak used the millions of ringgit in his personal bank accounts for political purposes was not corrupt, his lawyer argued today. During Najib’s trial over the misappropriation of RM2.2 billion of 1Malaysia Development Berhad’s (1MDB) funds, lead defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said that various prosecution witnesses have confirmed that his client did not use the money for personal spending, but for corporate social responsibility, social welfare and political purposes.
Asked by trial judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah if spending the money for political purpose and not for personal purpose makes a difference, Shafee argued there was a difference. “What is important is this, it does make a difference, the answer is yes, because if I am robbing 1MDB to quote an elderly statesman — ‘perompak’, ‘penyangak’ — if I’m a robber of 1MDB money, I must be a Robin Hood to give it back by political, channelling by welfare, by CSR. “I have to be a Robin Hood.
But we have proven, Yang Arif, 99 point whatever percent of those monies went not for his personal use, like for instance, he goes and buy a yacht or buy a private plane or he treated everybody with champagne in New York bars or something like that. “So, it is against the pathology of corruption that a person took this money and he spent it not for personal use, but for the benefit of the public as a whole, he may be a seg.
