Jho Low pre-prepared minutes of meeting on debt notes, Petro Saudi JV

KUALA LUMPUR: A meeting was held at Datuk Seri Najib Razak's house on the evening of Oct 16,2009 to formalise a meeting minutes pre-prepared by Low Taek Jho.

Former 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) chief executive officer Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi said the contents of the meeting were already pre-agreed, and the meeting at the then prime minister's home was just to formalise and confirm the standing on the 1MDB board of advisor's direction.

Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram cross-examined Shahrol, as he read his witness statement.

Sri Ram: When was that pre-agreed?

Shahrol: These minutes were prepared beforehand by Jho Low. We finalised it together via a series of discussion, in which he told me that he had already checked with Najib.

Sri Ram: Now, when you presented this minutes to the accused, did he raise any questions on this?

Shahrol: No, if I recall correctly, I handed Najib a copy of the minutes, he spent a bit of time reading it and there were no questions.

Reading from his witness statement before Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah, Shahrol said the meeting was to report on the latest updates on the Islamic Medium Term Notes (IMTN) and the joint venture with Petro Saudi International.

On the feedback by Petro Saudi then about the revaluation of the JV company, Shahrol said Najib was of the opinion that it did not need to be done due to the risks to the bilateral relations between Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.

"He said the JV company's board members will have to get his feedback first.

"Although this meeting was done in writing and on record, all previous actions before this was based on the will and mandate of Najib, that was given through direct order to the board and also through Jho Low," he said.