Show proof of my wrongdoing, Najib challenges Justo

Former prime minister Najib Razak today responded to 1MDB whistleblower Xavier Justo, challenging him to show proof of his claim that the one-time leader had been behind the misappropriation of funds from PetroSaudi International.

In a Facebook post, Najib also launched a series of questions against the former PetroSaudi director who had yesterday urged him to get his mental health checked after being accused of stealing data in exchange for money from a UK-based businessman.

“Thank you for your concern about my mental health. I am happy to report that I am perfectly fine,” he said. “But I do have several questions.”

He urged Justo to post “which documents from the emails that you took said that I am behind or masterminded the misappropriation of money by PetroSaudi (sic)”.

Adding that his own lawyers had never found any such proof, he said the evidence instead showed that he was not involved.

“I was surprised that you called me a liar or crazy despite me quoting directly from publicly available links in the media as compared to your bare denials,” he said, referring to among others a report by The Edge dated June 2018.

Justo had hit out at Najib yesterday, accusing the former prime minister of writing lies about him as well as others.

Najib in an earlier post had said that none of the documents or emails that Justo leaked pointed to wrongdoing by him in the 1MDB scandal.

But Justo said there had been evidence in courts including in Switzerland, Malaysia and the US that would prove Najib’s guilt.

Najib in his post today also asked why it had taken Justo four years after his resignation to offer evidence, and why he had said in an interview with Al-Jazeera that he was unsure if he would still have blown the whistle on 1MDB if PetroSaudi had paid him several million in Swiss francs.

“Is it true that you met and blackmailed your employers in Thailand in year 2013?” he added.

“If this is not true and that offence did not happen in Thailand, why is it that the Bangkok courts had jurisdiction for you to be charged and sentenced to three years’ jail? And why have you not slammed the Thailand legal system for illegally imprisoning you or even appealed your conviction?”