PETALING JAYA (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Supporters of former premier Najib Razak is launching on Thursday (July 5) a fund to help him pay for his court defence and bail.

After being charged in court on Wednesday, he paid half of the RM1 million (S$337,000) bail and needs to pay the other half on Monday.

The fund is called Solidariti Bersama Datuk Najib (Solidarity with Datuk Najib).

"We want to give moral and financial support to Datuk Seri Najib," said the fund's spokesman Mohd Razlan Mohamad Rafii, who was the former Youth wing chief for the Federal Territories.

He told The Star: "We know that he has been charged and his bail has been set at RM1 million.

"However, Najib could only pay RM500,000 and to fund the balance, he has to surrender his house title deed as security.

"We therefore want to offer our moral and financial support to him."

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Najib on Wednesday claimed trial to three counts of criminal breach of trust and another charge of abuse of power involving RM42 million (S$14.2 million) linked to SRC International, a former subsidiary of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

Najib pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The argument for bail took about an hour before it was fixed at RM1 million by High Court judge Mohd Sofian Abd Razak.

Attorney-General Tommy Thomas proposed the bail to be set at RM4 million in cash, to which Najib's lead counsel Shafee Abdullah objected, saying that it was too high an amount.

Tan Sri Shafee said his client is not a flight risk and asked for bail of between RM500,000 and RM800,000 instead.

The bail was eventually set at RM1 million with two sureties. The court also agreed for the bail payment to be in two instalments.