Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak meminta penerbit The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) untuk menyatakan pendiriannya berhubung penerbitan dua artikel yang mendakwa wang 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) telah disalurkan ke akaun peribadi miliknya.

Dalam surat bertarikh 8 Julai kepada penerbit WSJ, Dow Jones and Company Inc, firma guaman Najib Hafarizam Wan & Aisha Mubarak berkata ia meminta syarikat itu untuk “memperjelaskan pendirian” bahawa adakah ia benar Najib telah menyeleweng sejumlah US700 juta (RM2.6 bilion) milik syarikat 1MDB.

“Kami diarahkan untuk mendapatkan pendirian anda kerana artikel secara kolektif mencadangkan bahawa anda tidak pasti "sumber asal wang itu dan apa yang berlaku kepada wang terbabit" sementara di sisi lain, ia mewujudkan gambaran yang jelas bahawa klien kami telah menyalahgunakan kira-kira US$700 juta (2.6 bilion) yang dimiliki oleh 1MDB,” kata surat itu.

Surat itu juga memberi masa 14 hari untuk untuk WSJ menjelaskan jika mereka telah melantik peguam di Malaysia dan bagi pihak wartawan yang menulis artikel terbabit sekiranya prosiding undang-undang diperlukan.

BACA: Najib Razak mulakan proses undang-undang terhadap The Wall Street Journal

Surat itu memberi fokus kepada dua artikel bertajuk ‘Malaysia leader's accounts probed’ bertarikh 2 Julai dan ‘Scandal in Malaysia’ bertarikh 6 Julai, yang ditulis oleh Simon Clark dan Tom Wright.

Berikut adalah kandungan penuh surat yang dikeluarkan:

The Board Of Directors, Dow Jones & Company, Inc

We act for the Right Honourable Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, in his personal capacity.

We refer to the Articles dated 2nd July 2015 and 6th July 2015 in your Wall Street Journal which, we state, contains a plethora of convoluted, scurrilous and vague allegations against our client.

In the circumstances, we are instructed by our Client to seek confirmation as to whether it is your position as taken in the Articles that our Client misappropriated nearly USD 700 million from 1Malaysia Development Berhad?

We are instructed to procure your position because the Articles collectively suggest that you are unsure of “the original source of the money and what happened to the money” whilst on the other hand, the general gist of the Articles create a clear impression that our Client has misappropriated about USD 700 million belonging to 1Malaysia Development Berhad.

In the circumstance and in the interests of our Client, we would expect a Newspaper of your international standing and reputation to state unequivocally and with clarity as to whether it is your contention that our Client misappropriated about USD 700 million belonging to 1Malaysia Development Berhad. You will no doubt appreciate the seriousness of the allegations made against our Client in the said Articles and this confirmation is sought to enable us to advise our Client on the appropriate legal recourse he can take to seek redress in relation to the publication of these Articles.

We demand a reply within fourteen (14) days of the date hereof and please let us know whether you have appointed solicitors in Malaysia to accept service of legal proceedings on your behalf and on behalf of the reporters who wrote the Articles in the event that legal proceeding become necessary.
We hereby reserve all our Client’s rights in this matter.