KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 21): Datuk Amhari Efendi Nazaruddin, a former special officer to Datuk Seri Najib Razak, was directed to implicate his ex-boss, Najib's defence told the court on Wednesday. 

Najib's counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah described Amhari as a crony of Low Taek Jho or Jho Low, a fugitive businessman and allegedly the mastermind of the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal.   

"Amhari is a corrupt public official. He knowingly accepted a US$200,000 loan directly from Jho Low as a bridging loan to finance his property purchase.

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"[Amhari] has every reason to extricate himself from his complicity with Jho Low and to inculpate Najib; instead his credibility could be salvaged if his wrongdoings are attributed to his superior's instructions instead of his personal corrupt motive," said the senior lawyer during submissions at the end of the prosecution's case in the 1MDB-Tanore trial.

Amhari is the prosecution's eighth witness.

Shafee said Amhari came to the court with a mindset "almost like [having] a chip" in his head on how he should appear and testify in the court to absolve himself.

Shafee was submitting on the abuse of power charges Najib faces.

Wednesday was day three of submissions, and the defence counsel was on the first abuse of power charge, particular going through the first limb, where Najib was alleged to have obtained the Cabinet's consent in April 2009 for a government's guarantee for Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA) to get domestic and foreign market loans up to RM5 billion by way of Islamic medium-term notes.

TIA is 1MDB's predecessor. The money raised was eventually used by 1MDB for its joint venture with PetroSaudi International.

Shafee argued that Najib was never involved with the inception of TIA - rather only carried out policy decisions made by his predecessor, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. 

The lawyer also pointed out that it had been widely reported that TIA - fashioned to be a sovereign wealth fund to raise funds to develop the state of Terengganu - was a suggestion mooted by Jho Low to Terengganu ruler Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin. 

The parties are currently submitting at the end of the prosecution's case. Following this, trial judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah will set a date to deliver his decision on whether the former prime minister has to enter his defence or can walk free.

In this trial, Najib faces four counts of abuse of power for using his position as the then prime minister, finance minister, and chairman of 1MDB’s board of advisers to receive gratifications worth US$620 million (RM2.27 billion). He also faces 21 money-laundering charges. 

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