FOR the first time, Datuk Seri Najib Razak admitted in court that he had direct contact with fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho or Jho Low. This contradicted his earlier assertions that he was only in contact with Datuk Azlin Alias, his deceased former private secretary, on matters related to his AmBank accounts.

The former premier’s testimony during the SRC International Sdn Bhd trial over the past week has shed some light on the extent of contact that the former premier had with Low, as the prosecution continued to grill him over the management of his bank accounts.

On Tuesday, Najib affirmed that Low — besides authorised person Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, who is the former managing director and CEO of SRC, and Azlin, who monitored the accounts through Nik Faisal — was tasked with managing his bank accounts.

Deputy public prosecutor (DPP) Datuk V Sithambaram questioned Najib on how he kept issuing cheques despite claiming ignorance on the balances in his accounts and how the accounts were managed.

“I put it to you that it was the job of Jho Low, Nik Faisal and Azlin to make sure you had funds in the account. It was their job,” said the DPP.

“They managed my account, yes. But to what extent Nik Faisal dealt with Jho Low, I had no idea,” responded the accused.

“I’m putting it to you that it was you who gave the job to Jho Low, Nik Faisal and Azlin to make sure you had enough funds in the account,” said Sithambaram.

“But the money had to be from legitimate sources. I would never have asked them to do something illegal,” said Najib.

His testimony contradicted what he said in court last month, that he was shocked that Low was dealing with AmBank on the management of his personal accounts and that he had never allowed Low to do so.

He also repeatedly emphasised in his witness statement that only Azlin and Nik Faisal were authorised to manage his bank accounts and also questioned why AmBank had dealt with Low in relation to money flows of the accounts, given that he was not an authorised third party.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Najib admitted in court that he was in direct contact with Low in some instances, after Sithambaram highlighted BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) exchanges between Low and former AmBank relationship manager Joanna Yu.

The BBM exchange was in relation to a credit card payment by Najib, made in Honolulu, Hawaii, in December 2014, which did not go through due to an issue with the credit card system.

Low told Yu that he received a message from “MNR”, in reference to Najib, that the transaction did not go through.

Sithambaram referred to Najib’s bank statement, which showed that the particular transaction did go through.

The DPP also referred the accused to another exchange between Low and Yu in May 2014, whereby Low asked Yu to check the status of the 906 account to see if it was overdrawn, as he told the banker that “boss wrote a big cheque”.

Based on the exchanges between Low and Yu, the DPP put it to Najib that it was clear that Low was kept informed of Najib’s transactions and was tasked to ensure the transactions went through.

“I put it to you that the BBM chats would show that Jho Low was, in some instances, in contact with you to ensure the cheque payments went through,” said Sithambaram.

“[I mostly dealt with the matter] through Azlin,” Najib replied.

“But Jho Low did liaise with you,” said the DPP.

“On very few occasions. Very few,” the former premier said.

His admission goes against his previous assertions that he never directly contacted Low for matters relating to his personal accounts.

Hearing before High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali resumes on Jan 20.