KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Razak's former aide was today grilled at length over his so-called secret mission to China and Abu Dhabi to sort out 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) issues in 2016.
Najib's lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah asked Datuk Amhari Efendi Nazaruddin to explain why he kept referring to the trips as a secret mission.
"You seem to think it was a 007 secret mission when it was just something you were asked to do to pave the way for the prime minister's visit to China later on," Shafee said when cross examining Amhari.
Shafee also asked Amhari to explain if Najib had ever asked him to go to China and negotiate with the Chinese to overpay the price of projects like the East Coast Rail link (ECRL) to bailout 1MDB's debts.
Amhari confirmed that the former prime minister had never asked him to do that.
However, he maintained that his interpretation of bailout of 1MDB's debts was based on talking points provided to him for the meeting with the Chinese.
Shafee: Did anyone suggest to inflate prices during your meeting with the Chinese?
Amhari: Not at the meetings I attended but there were other meetings.
Shafee: You are not suggesting that Chinese companies which are all linked to their government inflated prices?
Amhari: I don't know.
Shafee: If you want to inflate prices it would have to be in the billions, because that is 1MDB's debt.
Amhari: I don't know.
Shafee: The current government itself has announced that for the ECRL there was no inflation of price but it was just reduced now as the project was down scaled.
Amhari: I think so, yes.
Later, when re-examined by lead prosecutor Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram, Amhari was asked to explain about his trips to China and Abu Dhabi again.
Sri Ram asked the witness if he was reimbursed for expenses incurred during his trips.
Amhari replied in the positive and said he was given cash, which amounted to "tens of thousands" by Najib.
"Najib gave me the cash when I met him at his house," he said.
Asked why he did not file his claims to the Prime Minister's Office ((PMO) as is usually done for any official trip, Amhari said: "Because this was a secret mission."
Amhari also explained that the China trip was especially difficult for him as at that time issues concerning 1MDB were widely spoken.
"So when Najib asked me to go to China I was still okay but when he said Jho Low (fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho) was arranging the meetings I became concerned.
"I was very, very nervous," he said, adding that at that time he still believed Najib's claim that there was a political conspiracy against him.
Amhari was testifying in the trial involving his former boss, who is facing 25 criminal charges of having abused his position to obtain gratification amounting to RM2.28 billion of 1MDB funds and money laundering.
The trial before judge Collin Lawrence Sequesrah will continue on Monday.