Bank accounts of Najib’s children frozen

Reports by RAZAK AHMAD, MAZWIN NIK ANIS, FARIK ZOLKEPLI and MARTIN CARVALDO

PETALING JAYA: A day after Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s daughter complained about having her personal bank account frozen, three other children of the former prime minister are also said to have suffered a similar fate.

Datuk Lokman Noor Adam, the president of the pro-Umno NGO Pemantau Malaysia Baru (New Malaysia Monitor) said he was informed that the accounts of Nooryana Najwa Najib along with Mohd Norashman Najib, Mohd Nizar Najib and Puteri Norlisa Najib were frozen by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

The accounts were frozen in relation to the investigation into Najib’s involvement in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal.

Later, Lokman lodged two police reports at Dang Wangi. The first was against Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad for constantly making baseless accusations against Najib from 2015 to 2018, claiming that the latter had stolen RM2.6bil in funds from 1MDB.

The second is against MACC chief commissioner Datuk Seri Mohd Shukri Abdull for freezing more than 400 bank accounts, including that of Najib’s immediate family.

Najib on Wednesday claimed trial to three counts of criminal breach of trust and ano­ther charge of abuse of power involving RM42mil linked to SRC International Sdn Bhd, a former subsidiary of 1MDB.

“This is inhumane, and what makes things worse is that I was told that Puteri Norlisa is not well and needs access to her account to pay for her medical treatment,” said Lokman, who is also an Umno supreme council member.

In a Facebook page posting which Utusan Malaysia reported on Thursday, Mohd Nizar lamented about the difficulties he now faces.

“The accounts of my younger siblings and me (sic) have been frozen. Cannot even pay bills,” read the posting on Thursday, a day after Najib was charged.

The same day, Malaysiakini reported that Mohd Norashman had his accounts frozen, while blog site The Third Force reported yesterday that the bank account of Puteri Norlisa had also been frozen.

There was no immediate response from Najib’s aide and lawyer when contacted.

Najib and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor have two children, Nooryana Najwa and Mohd Norashman. He has three children from a previous marriage to Tengku Puteri Zainah Tengku Eskan­dar, Mohd Nizar, Mohd Nazifuddin and Puteri Norlisa.

Rosmah also has two children from her previous marriage to Abdul Aziz Nong Chik, Riza and Azrene Soraya.

On Thursday, Nooryana wrote on a closed Facebook group that her bank had informed her that it received instructions to freeze not only her account, but also her son’s account.

She wrote that her son’s bank account had RM100, which was from his first duit raya.

“What does my baby’s duit raya have to do with 1MDB? Is this the new Malaysia people were praying for?” Nooryana added.

The MACC has, however, denied the claim that her son’s account was frozen.

In Putrajaya, Dr Mahathir said that Najib could go to court if he felt that the authorities were wrong in freezing the accounts of his family members.

Insisting that the move was not an act of revenge by the Pakatan Harapan Government, the Prime Minister pointed out that he was placed under the same situation pre­viously but did not complain.

“What is there to take revenge? What he did before was much worse but we didn’t complain. My friends were driven away, they were not allowed to be acquainted with me. Their accounts were also frozen. But we didn’t complain,” he said.

“If this (freezing of accounts) is a wrongful act, then he can take it to court,” said Dr Mahathir who as chairman of Pakatan had earlier chaired its presidential council meeting.