KUALA LUMPUR - Fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low could be hiding in Myanmar under the protection of its military generals, says lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.
He said initially, speculations about Jho Low's location pointed to China, Dubai and also Macau, among others.
However, during former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) trial, he said the testimony of key prosecution witness former 1MDB general counsel Jasmine Loo, indicated that Jho Low might be in Myanmar.
"From the testimony I grilled from Loo, I think he is in Myanmar, protected by the generals.
"This is because he was able to get the passport to Loo to enter Myanmar without a Malaysian passport being stamped and to exit without the stamping and Loo was traveling on a Myanmar passport.
"She also confirmed it was Jho Low who arranged for this passport," he said during the Media Townhall: Getting the Facts Right – The Untold Stories of 1MDB & Other Cases, here, today.
He was responding to a question from a member of the public who asked about Jho Low's whereabouts and why was it difficult to locate him.
The other panelists during the public forum moderated by Kamarudin Ahmad were former Dewan Rakyat speaker Tan Sri Azhar Azizan Harun and lawyer Adzly Abdul Manas.
It was reported that Loo previously testified in court that in 2019, she got into trouble with the Myanmar military junta when she tried to enter the country with an unstamped passport.
She said however, Jho Low dealt with the Myanmar authorities to give her a fake passport and pass as a citizen of the country until last year, when she returned to Malaysia.
On Oct 30, the High Court, here, ordered Najib, 71, to enter his defence on four charges of using his position to obtain gratification totalling RM2.3 billion in 1MDB funds and 21 money laundering charges involving the same amount.
This was after the court found that the prosecution had established a prima facie case on all 25 charges at the end of the prosecution's case.
The court fixed Dec 2 for the defence trial.