The Malaysian Insight

HIGH court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali allowed a request for an extension by Najib Razak’s defence team to close their arguments in the SRC International trial tomorrow.

Lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah requested for closing submissions to continue tomorrow after co-defence counsel Harvinderjit Singh did not turn up this afternoon to deliver his replies to the prosecution’s arguments.

Nazlan agreed to allow Harvinderjit to present his submission, after which Shafee will close.

The judge said the case must finish tomorrow as promised by the defence: “Whether Harvey is present or not, you will proceed.”

After submissions are concluded, the 52-year-old Nazlan, a graduate of Oxford University who headed Maybank’s corporate and legal services before joining the judiciary, will set a date to deliver his verdict.

This is the second extension request granted by Nazlan for submissions.

The trial was initially fixed from Monday to yesterday for submissions to conclude. A 1Malaysia Development Bhd trial hearing date today was vacated to make way for the SRC International trial.

Should the trial end tomorrow, it would be just over 14 months after it began on April 3 last year.

Najib faces seven charges for receiving RM42 million in SRC International funds between December 2014 and February 2015.

He is charged with three counts of criminal breach of trust, three counts of money-laundering and one count of abuse of power. This is the country’s first criminal trial involving a former prime minister.

The defence maintained that Najib was under the impression that the funds he spent on political activities, corporate social responsibility programmes and other personal expenditures originated from Saudi Arabia.

Najib’s lawyers also maintained that Low Taek Jho, commonly known as Jho Low, who was a 1Malaysia Development Bhd intermediary figure, was behind the transactions that led the RM42 million being in Najib’s accounts.

The Pekan MP, who turns 67 next month, is also an accused in two other ongoing criminal trials.

The 1MDB trial involves RM2.282 billion in public funds that Najib allegedly received between 2011 and 2014, while at another trial, Najib faces one abuse of power charge for tampering with the 1MDB audit report. – June 4, 2020.