Former premier Najib Abdul Razak has claimed that his actions were done in the interest of the nation and not for personal benefit.

Commenting on his criminal breach of trust charges, he argued that his decisions staved off a national debt.

“My conscience is clear that the decisions were taken in the interest of the nation, in context of when you receive certain money, you will have to pay it back.

“Otherwise, we would be at default and it would lead to a collapse of the bond market. That would be very serious.

“(There are) certain contractual obligations that we would have to do. (It) would be in the interest of the nation to ensure that we don't renege on our contractual obligations,” he told reporters outside the Kuala Lumpur Court Complex after posting bail today.

Najib said there is nothing in the charges to suggest that he or former Treasury secretary-general Irwan Serigar Abdullah (below) had benefited personally from the alleged breaches, and he would make this point in court.

“There is nothing in the charges to link my decisions to any personal benefit, nothing in the charges that I have benefited from what I have done […]

“What we have done, we would prove in court, God willing, that it was all (done) in national interest and there is no element of personal benefit to me or Irwan,” he added.

In a Facebook post later, Najib said four of the six charges were related to a settlement with the International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), where the government had to pay US$1.2 billion in arrears last year.

The money is to return a US$1 billion loan with interest, which had been paid by IPIC to Malaysia in June 2015.

Najib said the settlement agreement also included a clause where IPIC would have to return US$3.5 billion to the government by Dec 31, 2020.

As for the remaining two charges, the former premier said these concerned the Malaysian government's move to pay China government-owned companies to start the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project and a gas pipeline project, as contractually required.

The MACC had claimed that Najib redirected government funds earmarked for the BR1M cash transfers, funds for managing the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, proceeds from the selling of a piece of Finance Ministry land to Bank Negara and funds received from a "foreign entity in China".

The sum totalling RM4.78 billion had gone to repay money owed by 1MDB to IPIC.

Najib’s lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, however, said these were merely executive decisions for reprioritising funding and that these decisions happen all the time even under the present government.

The Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court has set bail at RM1 million each for Najib and Irwan. They are to settle half the amount today and the remainder in the next ten days.

Outside the courtroom, Najib urged people not to be “misguided” by the large figures quoted in the charge sheet and stressed that the money had not gone missing.

“It does not mean RM6.5 billion has gone missing. The RM6.5 billion is the total payment and the payments can all be accounted for,” he said.

Najib also expressed regret over the fact that the prosecution led by Gopal Sri Ram had only provided his charge sheet just five minutes before the court went into session this morning, saying that this was not proper.