KUALA LUMPUR – The high court here has set May 20 to hear Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s bid to seek a court order compelling the prosecution to produce bank statements and other documents to his team in the RM2.3 billion 1Malaysia Development Bhd case.
Deputy public prosecutor Mohamad Mustaffa P. Kunyalam told reporters that the date was fixed by judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah during case mention today.
“The court has ordered the prosecution to file their reply to Najib’s affidavit by April 26, and they (defence) will need to file their reply to the prosecution’s affidavit on May 5,” he said, adding that the court also ordered both parties to file their written submissions by May 17.
On March 24, former prime minister Najib’s legal team, led by Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, filed a notice of motion claiming that, among others, the documents are under the custody of the prosecution or other entities.
In an affidavit affirmed by Najib, 67, to support his application, he said the documents are vital and relevant to the 1MDB case, and not made available to the defence before the trial began.
According to the affidavit, Najib claimed that some of the documents are linked to companies believed to be related to fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, and the family of former Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) governor Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz.
In the notice of motion, among the documents the Pekan MP seeks from the prosecution are bank statements for Aktis Capital Singapore Pte Ltd, Country Group Securities Public Company Ltd, ACME Time Ltd (BVI), Butamba Investments Ltd and Central Holdings Ltd.
He is also seeking their certificates of incumbency, declarations of the identities of the companies’ beneficial owners, member and director registers, as well as correspondence between the banks and companies in respect of transactions, including emails, telegraphic transfers, remittance forms, payment advice, transaction reports, payment orders, credit advice and bank memos.
The application compels the revelation of the documents from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and BNM, or any other entity having custody of the documents. – Bernama, March 26, 2021
