KUALA LUMPUR: Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak paid RM240,000 for the expenses of the now-defunct news portal Malaysian Digest.
Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi told the High Court here that the portal received a cheque for RM240,000 under the name Vital Spire Sdn Bhd in 2015.
Onn Hafiz, who is the nephew of Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and great-grandson of Umno founder Datuk Onn Jaafar, took the stand as the 16th witness on the seventh day of Najib’s corruption trial here on Tuesday . The 41-year-old owned shares in Vital Spire, a consultancy company dealing in leadership and motivation.
“Vital Spire received the cheque for the purpose of running the website malaysiadigest.com,” he said during examination-in-chief by DPP Muhammad Saifuddin Hashim Musaimi.DPP Muhammad Saifuddin: Who gave the instruction to set it up?Onn Hafiz: Yes. I usually meet him at the Prime Minister’s Office.During cross-examination by Najib’s counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, Onn Hafiz disagreed that the RM240,000 payment was for his core business in leadership at Vital Spire.
He said the website intended to provide balanced news for the general public including to combat fake news.The trial continues on Wednesday before Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali.On July 4 last year, Najib claimed trial to a charge of abuse of power and three counts of criminal breach of trust linked to the 1MDB scandal.On Aug 8, 2018, he appeared in court again for the second time and was charged with three counts of money laundering involving the same RM42mil.
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