The Malaysian Insight

THE Kuala Lumpur High Court has dismissed an application by Najib Razak to obtain statements of witnesses who were not called to the stand at the SRC International trial.

Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali said the statements taken by a prosecuting officer under the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act are privileged and not subject to disclosure or inspection at any stage of the trial.

“It is privileged because of public policy considerations and to prevent witness tampering,” Nazlan said.

Identities of the witnesses that were never called up should also remain secret, the judge added.

“The application appeared to be a fishing expedition,” Nazlan said.

The judge also dismissed a separate application to postpone the SRC International trial, slated to begin on December 3.

“I find that more than ample notice and reasonable time have been given to the applicant (Najib) to be prepared and re-strategise the relevant arrangements.

“Accordingly, I dismiss the entire application and the trial will therefore resume on December 3, as previously directed,” said Nazlan.

Appearing for Najib today were lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, Harvinderjit Singh, Farhan Read and others.

Attorney-General Tommy Thomas, assisted by ad hoc prosecutor V. Sithambaram, led the prosecution.

Najib did not appear today, after obtaining prior permission from Nazlan.

The 66-year-old accused faces seven criminal charges linked to RM4 billion in loans issued to SRC International in 2011 and 2012, for which he is accused of receiving RM42 million in his personal accounts in 2014 and 2015.

The prosecution stage of the SRC International trial ran from April 3 to August 27, with 57 prosecution witnesses testifying.

After Najib was ordered to enter his defence on Monday, he sought a court order to compel prosecutors to produce a list of names of all witnesses who were questioned by the MACC in relation to the SRC International investigations.

The former prime minister also wanted statements of witnesses that were not called to the stand and to allow his lawyers to question them.

“This is a fishing expedition,” said Sithambaram during submissions earlier today.

“They don’t know their defence, they want to interview the witnesses and obtain their defence from their statements.”

The prosecution argued that only documents relevant to the case were tendered in court while the rest were privileged and protected by law.

Thomas, in arguing against the adjournment, said Najib should not be allowed to delay his trials just because he relies on the same legal team.

“If the defence chooses the same defence team, they have to pay the price for that. If you are not free to do it, then you shouldn’t accept.

“There are four or five thousand defence lawyers in the country. For those reasons, we object rigorously for an adjournment. We ask for the trial to resume on December 3,” said Thomas.

Najib will be the first defence witness to testify on December 3. He will give his statement and later be cross-examined by prosecutors.

Before that, on Monday, Najib will begin his trial for the charge of tampering with the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) audit report.  

The 1MDB audit tampering trial dates have been fixed from November 18 to 29, and from January 13 and 17, next year.

After that Najib will begin his trial over six counts of criminal breach of trust (CBT) involving RM6.6 billion in government money paid out to settle debts with Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC).

That trial is slated to run intermittently from January 6 to April 30. Nazlan informed lawyers today that the SRC International trial may have to take up those dates.

In all, Najib faces 42 charges, spread out over five criminal trials.

The ongoing 1MDB proceedings involve the biggest money laundering sum – RM2.282 billion that he allegedly received between 2011 and 2014.

The trials will proceed one at a time, as Najib’s right as an accused requires that he be present for all trial hearings, as well as those on interlocutory matters, to ensure fair proceedings.

The burden of proof is on prosecutors, who must prove that Najib is guilty beyond reasonable doubt. Till then, he is presumed innocent. – November 15, 2019.