KUALA LUMPUR: The former chief executive officer of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) today denied that he had made a deal with the prosecution to testify against Datuk Seri Najib Razak to save his own neck.
Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim said he had never been detained or remanded by any enforcement agency from the day the 1MDB scandal broke.
Instead, the 50-year old said he had merely been called to assist investigations as a witness in the case by police and Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) officers.
He said this happened sometime in 2016 and 2017.
However, Najib's lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah did not let the former top executive of the sovereign wealth fund which lost billions under his watch to escape some hard hitting questions on the issue.
Shafee reminded Shahrol how the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had regarded the latter as one of the main persons responsible for the 1MDB fiasco.
Shafee: Are you aware that the PAC had in April 2016 recommended that you should be held accountable for 1MDB losses?
Shahrol: Yes
Shafee: They called you the Number 1 culprit?
Shahrol: Yes
Shafee: Were you ever arrested or remanded by the police or MACC?
Shahrol: No
Shafee: Did you make a deal with the prosecution that you will sing like a bird here to avoid being charged?
Shahrol: No
Shafee: However, you were barred from leaving the country from July 2018 to January this year.
Shahrol: Yes...but I never applied for the travel restrictions to be lifted. I just informed the investigators that I was finding it impossible to find a job in Malaysia.
Shafee then asked Shahrol if he had ever read the novel The Billion Dollar Whale on the 1MDB scandal and the role played by fugitive financier Low Taek Jho @ Jho Low.
Shahrol replied that he had never read the book even though the authors had contacted him for comments prior to the novel being written.
Asked why this was so, Shahrol said he never bothered to read the book as it was not something he wanted to do.
Earlier, Shahrol said he had also not bothered to read the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) report on 1MDB even though his name featured prominently in it and his reputation was at stake.
Asked why this was so, he replied: "It is my own way of managing the stress I go through everyday."
Najib, 68, is facing 25 counts of abuse of power and money laundering involving RM2.28 billion of 1MDB funds which were deposited into his accounts between 2011 and 2014.
The trial continues on July 15.