Pascal Najadi believes there is more to his father and AmBank founder Hussain Ahmad Najadi’s murder, and accused Malaysian police of allowing the mastermind behind the assassination to escape.
Pascal, in an interview with Sarawak Report published today, said even though his father’s shooter was arrested but the mastermind who commissioned the assassination was allowed to flee.
“The Malaysians never pursued him and it’s been dropped,” he was quoted as saying.
Pascal ( photo ) also dismissed speculation that his father was killed for helping a temple to stop its land from being acquired for development.
“The story about the temple doesn’t add up. He was nothing to do with the temple. Why would you kill someone over some row about that?” he said.
Instead, Pascal believed that his father’s death was related to corruption and the perpetrator had since fled the country.
“I have no explanation for his execution except corruption at the bank and the mastermind was let go and escaped via Sydney.
“Malaysia have not followed up via Interpol. He was Malaysian, he boarded a flight to Sydney even though he was an immediate suspect.
“The Australians followed this mastermind to Shanghai, but Malaysia never pursued him,” he was quoted as saying.
Hussain was shot dead on July 29, 2013 at close range in a car park after leaving a Chinese temple in Lorong Ceylon.
Police urged to reopen probe
Yesterday, DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang urged police to reopen the investigation into Hussain’s murder to ensure that it had nothing to do with the 1MDB scandal.
This was after The Wall Street Journal ( WSJ ) reported last Friday of allegations that US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) in state funds was deposited into Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s private bank accounts at AmBank.
Hussain was killed four months after the first alleged transactions involving Najib’s bank accounts.
Documents revealed by the WSJ claim that Tanore Finance Corp transferred US$619,999,988 and US$60,999,988 into an AmBank account which allegedly belonged to Najib on March 21 and March 25 respectively.
This was followed by two rounds of transactions in December 2014 and February 2015 originating from former 1MDB subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd.
A total of RM42 million was transferred from SRC International to Gandingan Mentari Sdn Bhd, then to Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd before being deposited into AmBank accounts allegedly owned by Najib.
Pascal said his father was a man on integrity and related how the man had turned down offers to make a quick buck through corrupt practices.
He added that his father would report any alleged corrupt practices to the authorities, though not through regular means such as going to the police.
“That was not his style, because he knew it is a shot in the dark in Malaysia to log a police report... I believe that he would have gone to senior regulators direct to report findings that he found out involving massive amounts being looted,” he was quoted as saying.
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