KUALA LUMPUR: Former 1Malaysia Development Bhd Jasmine Loo told the High Court today that she met with Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, in China in 2017.
The 50th prosecution witness in Datuk Seri Najib Razak's 1MDB trial said the meeting was to discuss a potential development project for a shopping centre in Thailand.
To a question from Najib's lead counsel, Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, during cross-examination, she said she did not meet with the fugitive financier again after 2018.
Loo, who was in Bangkok when the results of the 14th General Election in 2018 showed that Barisan Nasional had been oustered, said she became a fugitve after that as she was wanted for alleged involvement in the 1MDB scandal.
In the five years that she was on the run, till July last year, she said she had moved about. From Thailand, she went to Cambodia, Hainan and Shenzen in China, and also Myanmar.
Loo said she had been ordered to move from Thailand to Cambodia by Low, who also told her not to interfere with his "plan" to negotiate with the Malaysian government.
"I felt that something bad would happen to me if I didn't follow his orders... I didn't think I could return to Malaysia safely.
"I spoke directly with him.... he said something would happen to me if I returned to Malaysia, so I felt threatened. I didn't want to put myself at risk even though I did nothing wrong," she said.
Asked by Shafee if she had lodged a police report against Low for threatening her, Loo said she did not as she felt that she was being watched at all times and that she was in danger.
She reiterated that she did not want to put herself at risk by going against what Low had ordered her to do, which was to stay where he wanted her to be.
Asked whether she lodged a police report against Low when she returned to Malaysia, she said she had yet to do so but would seek her lawyer's advice on the matter.
Meanwhile, Loo told the court that she received several luxury items during her time at 1MDB, including a Richard Mille watch, and a Hermes handbag when she left the company.
Asked if she had ever gone on vacations, partied and gambled with Low at several places, including in Las Vegas, Loo said she had never denied this, adding that this was not unusual among close friends.
To this, Shafee said he had spoken to Low several times but had never been invited to join him on such trips.
"So, are you his close friend?"
Loo agreed with Shafee's suggestion that the rogue businessman had fully sponsored her trip to watch the 2014 Rio de Janeiro Fifa World Cup semi-final match between host Brazil and Germany.
She said, in a previous match in the quarter-finals, Low had brought along English football legend David Beckham, Brazilian supermodel Adriana Lima and Hollywood superstar Leonardo DiCaprio.
Loo described Low as a soft-spoken person whom she had never heard raise his voice until 2015.
Asked if Low had taken on a more brusque personality in 2015 after the 1MDB scandal became coming out, Loo said: "Yes."
The trial before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues on March 14.