Son Of Slain AmBank Founder Claims His Father's Murder Linked To The Ongoing 1MDB Scandal
Pascal Najadi believes there is more to his father Hussain Ahmad Najadi's murder.
By Sadho Ram — 08 Jul 2015, 06:48 PM
On 29th July 2013, a gunman crept from behind the cars parked outside Kuan Yin temple in Jalan Ceylon and fired randomly at Hussain Ahmad Najadi, killing the renowned banker on the spot
About a year later, in September 2014, High Court judge Justice Mohd Azman Husin sentenced 45-year-old Koong Swee Kwan, a tow truck driver, to death for murdering Arab-Malaysian Development Bank founder Hussain Ahmad Najadi.
As for the motive, rumours were rife that it was over a property deal that had gone sour, involving the Chinese temple where Najadi had visited prior to his murder, The Malaysian Insider had reported. However, police have yet to confirm this.
Pascal Najadi, however, believes there is more to his father's murder. In an interview with Sarawak Report on 7 July 2015, the son of slain AmBank founder accused Malaysian police of allowing the mastermind behind the assassination to escape. He says:
“The Malaysians never pursued him and it’s been dropped. 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.”
sarawakreport.orgPascal, who currently resides in Moscow, believes his father was assassinated not because he was helping a temple to stop its land from being acquired for development but because of his open concerns about corruption at the bank he had once managed
“I am willing to go on the record. Nothing else makes sense. This was an execution, not a killing. 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 told Sarawak Report in the interview, referring to a supposed planning dispute that was floated at the time as being the reason for his father’s death.
Meanwhile, adding fuel to the fire, DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang has urged police to reopen the investigation into Hussain's murder case to ensure that it had nothing to do with the 1MDB controversy
The DAP veteran, citing recent allegations in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that billions of ringgit from the state investor were deposited into the private AmBank account of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, said the police should find out if the unusually large transfer of funds to and from the account had been noticed by the slain banker.
“In this connection, I call on the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar to reopen investigations into the murder of Hussain... to ascertain whether the murder had any links with the 1MDB scandal,” Lim said in a statement here.
themalaymailonline.com
IGP Khalid, however, claims that there is no connection between the murder of AmBank founder Hussain Ahmad Najadi and the alleged transfer of 1MDB funds to Najib's one of the personal bank accounts
The Inspector-General of Police said such claims were false and bordered on malice. "I can confirm that Hussain did not make any police report before he was shot dead," he told reporters after launching Ops Selamat here on Wednesday.
A WhatsApp message which went viral had linked Hussain's murder to a US$60mil deposit at an AmBank account. The message claimed that Hussain filed a police report on the matter on July 28, 2013.
"I repeat there is no connection between the IMDB probe and Hussain's murder," said Khalid. "Hussain's case has been solved with the killer already detained. End of story."