Business partner in solar hybrid project threatened to expose Najib, Rosmah, witness tells court

KUALA LUMPUR: Rayyan Radzwill Abdullah, who is the business partner of Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd managing director Saidi Abang Samsudin, threatened to expose former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor's role in the solar hybrid project in Sarawak to the then Opposition, the High Court heard Monday (Feb 17).

Tan Sri Dr Madinah Mohamad, who is the sixth prosecution witness for Rosmah's corruption trial, said that Rayyan had told her this to ensure she helped him obtain the contract for the solar hybrid project from Saidi.

"Between Oct or Nov 2017 and May 2018, Rayyan had bombarded me with messages on WhatsApp, until I started to ignore the messages (due to the volume).

"From the messages, I found that Rayyan has had a misunderstanding with Saidi and was was trying to snatch the contract for the solar hybrid project from Saidi," she said.

She added that Rayyan also claimed that Saidi had done several fraudulent actions in relations to the contract, such as changing the original terms for the contract and filing false claims.

"The reason (I think) Rayyan was telling me all this was that he wanted my help to meet the prime minister to snatch the contract from Saidi and Jepak Holdings.

"Rayyan said that he will reveal the involvement of the prime minister and 'ma'am' (Rosmah) in relation to the acquisition of the solar hybrid project contract to the (then) Opposition if I didn't help him," she said.

She added that she did not entertain Rayyan's messages.

The court also heard that Madinah, as Auditor-General, had in 2018 asked her officers to audit the payments that the Education Ministry had made to Jepak Holdings based on the messages Rayyan sent her previously.

The trial continues before High Court judge Justice Mohamed Zaini Mazlan in the afternoon.