The Malaysian Insight

THE Kuala Lumpur High Court will hear on January 7 an application by Najib Razak to call a Australian handwriting expert who the former prime minister said is needed to verify whether his signatures on SRC International-related documents were forged. 

Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali, who is the presiding judge for Najib’s SRC International trial, will also preside in the hearing for this application.

The January 7 date was fixed by high court deputy registrar Mahyuddin Md Som in chambers today.

Najib is seeking for 35 documents previously tendered and marked as exhibits to be made available for examination by the expert.

The examination is to be conducted “without interruption but in the presence of a representative of the prosecution, the defence and the court”, his notice of application filed on Monday said.

Najib, who entered his defence in the SRC International trial on December 3, has said that his signature on at least 15 documents, including banking transactions and forms, were forged.

Cross-examined by the prosecution, he said he never lodged a police report on the forged signatures because he wanted to first obtain affirmation from a handwriting expert. 

The Pekan MP had also said he never raised the matter when the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) showed him the documents containing his signatures during questioning last year, because he did not have the “originals” to compared them with. 

“I only knew of the possibility (of forgery) when the trial was proceeding, when I came across the documents where the signatures were most likely forged,” Najib testified yesterday.

In court yesterday, Najib and ad hoc prosecutor V. Sithambaram clashed over the former prime minister’s insistence that he could not verify his own signature himself.

Najib’s lead counsel Muhammad Safee Abdullah told the court last week that the handwriting expert had arrived in Malaysia on December 11.

Najib is on trial for charges linked to RM4 billion in loans issued to SRC International in 2011 and 2012, of which he is accused of receiving RM42 million in 2014 and 2015. SRC International is a former 1Malaysia Development Bhd subsidiary. 

The former Umno president is currently the subject of three ongoing criminal trials linked with 1MDB.

The SRC International trial will resume on January 6. – December 19, 2019.