KUALA LUMPUR – Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) trial at the high court here was cut short today on an application by the defence, as the former prime minister’s lead counsel, Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, needed to meet his lawyer over his money-laundering trial scheduled to begin tomorrow.
The 69-year-old lawyer faces two counts of money laundering involving RM9.5 million he allegedly received from Najib and two charges of making false statements to the Inland Revenue Board (IRB).
Shafee’s trial will commence tomorrow before high court judge Datuk Muhammad Jamil Hussin at 9am.
Today’s proceedings started at 11am as Najib and his legal team went to a forfeiture case before justice Muhammad Jamil.
When the proceedings resumed before high court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah, Shafee requested the court finish at 2pm today as he needed to meet with his lawyer over his money-laundering case.
Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib did not object to Shafee’s application, and Sequerah ordered the trial to stop at 2.45pm.
Najib’s other counsel, Wan Aizuddin Wan Muhammed, then continued to cross-examine the 10th prosecution witness, Mohd Hazem Abdul Rahman, 49, a former 1MDB CEO.
Hazem agreed to a question posed by the lawyer that fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, had a habit of undertaking financial decisions with documents that were not properly executed.
Wan Aizuddin: It appears that money from the bond raised by 1MDB was going everywhere, and it went into the companies that were under the control of Jho Low.
Hazem: Yes.
Wan Aizuddin: Jho Low was using the money from the raised bond as if it was his own money. Do you agree that Jho Low also had a habit of submitting ‘copy-and-paste’ documents to the bank?
Hazem: Yes.
Hazem, however, disagreed with a suggestion by the lawyer that the reason he was being ambiguous over Jho Low’s actions utilising the money from the bond is because he was protecting the latter.
Najib, 67, faces four charges of using his position to obtain bribes totalling RM2.3 billion in 1MDB funds and 21 charges of money laundering involving the same amount.
The trial continues on Monday. – Bernama, May 20, 2021
