Najib starting legal process to recover seized ‘gifts’

KUALA LUMPUR: The family of Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has started the legal process to claim back their seized items from the police.

The former prime minister said his family maintained that the seizures by the police comprised mostly gifts from friends, foreign dignitaries, including royalty, for occasions such as official visits and family events – birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, engagements.

“Some of the items seized belong to relatives and various third parties. We dispute the quantity and the valuation given by the police at their press conference since such valuation is subjective and subject to when the gifts were given,” he said in a statement yesterday.

As most of the items were gifts accumulated over decades, the family is not aware of how much was paid by those who had gifted these items, he added.

“Any valuation based on retail prices and at current prices would be unrealistic, likely to be grossly inflated and will give a very distorted picture as these items were received as gifts over a period that spans decades,” he said.

For example, Najib said the police had stated at the press conference that the most expensive watch was a Rolex Daytona that they said is valued at RM3.4mil.

“This item referred by the police appears to be a recent gift along with several other valuables given by the interior minister, who is also a prince of a Middle Eastern country who visited Malaysia in March this year.

“The police should also have stated that this item along with several others were contained in a box with the royal crest of a foreign country,” he said, adding that such facts should not have been omitted.

Many of the items seized were stored in boxes properly labelled by staff members with the item description, photographs, date of gift and the identity of the persons who gave the gift, the Pekan MP added.

“Should the police call our family for questioning over this matter, we will provide our full cooperation. To the best of our ability, we shall help the police identify those who have given the gifts over the decades.”