Najib again recites religious oath from witness stand, denies he took RM42m for gratification

KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 4): For the second day in a row, former premier Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak recited a religious oath from the witness stand, denying that he had sought gratification with regard to the RM42 million, allegedly from SRC International Sdn Bhd, that was in his bank account.

Just like yesterday, he recited the sumpah laknat while being re-examined in the SRC trial in the High Court. The oath beseeches God to carry out divine retribution upon those who lie, and is often used by Muslims to strongly deny an accusation.

"As a Muslim, wallahi wabillahi watallahi ... I never sought any gratification and I did not know that the RM42 million went into my account at that material time," Najib said today when replying to lead counsel Tran Sri Shafee Abdullah.

Yesterday, Najib had recited the same oath while being re-examined by another counsel, Farhan Read.

This is the first time the former premier recited the oath in Arabic during a court proceeding to deny the charges made against him.

This is unlike previous occasions when Najib had taken the religious oath in the mosque.

Last December, the former premier took the sumpah laknat at the Kampung Baru mosque to deny a statutory declaration (SD) made by Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri that Najib had a role in Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu's murder or had ordered her execution.

Azilah had in the SD sought a review of the Federal Court decision in January 2015 that found him and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar guilty of murdering Altantuya and meted the death punishment on them.

Sirul, however, managed to leave the country before the decision and is now being held at an Australian immigration centre near Sydney.

The former premier is charged with one count of abuse of power, three for criminal breach of trust and three more for allegedly embezzling RM42 million of SRC funds.

He had been ordered to enter his defence before Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali, and the re-examination by the prosecution concluded this afternoon.

The Edge is reporting the proceedings of the SRC trial live.

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