.jpg "Datuk Seri Najib Razak is pictured at the Kuala Lumpur High Court May 20, 2021. ― Picture by Hari Anggara")
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KUALA LUMPUR, May 31 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is the accused who is facing criminal charges in the trial involving over more than RM2 billion belonging to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), lead prosecutor Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram pointed out today in court.
Arguing on behalf of the prosecution, Sri Ram was objecting to Najib’s two applications to the High Court to have the prosecution provide documents related to former Bank Negara Malaysia governor Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz’s family’s companies, companies linked to fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, and investment banking company Goldman Sachs.
Sri Ram argued that the documents that Najib was seeking to help him in his defence in the 1MDB trial were actually not relevant to the power abuse and money laundering charges against Najib as the accused person in the same trial.
“I think the starting point of all these applications is the charges before Your Lordship. The essence of the charges — the predicate offences is that the accused abused his position and obtained a pecuniary advantage. The evidence in support of that allegation is the only relevant evidence as far as this case is concerned,” Sri Ram said.
“The first application is the Tan Sri Zeti application. My Lord, Tan Sri Zeti is not on trial, the accused is on trial,” he added.
Sri Ram also argued that the High Court can decide on the weight to be given to Zeti’s evidence after she had testified in court, but said it is not for the court to make interim findings of credibility of witnesses at this stage. Zeti is a potential prosecution witness in the 1MDB trial who has yet to be called to testify.
“What Zeti’s family have received is not relevant at all to whether the accused abused his position,” Sri Ram said.
Sri Ram argued that Najib’s application for the documents were “frivolous” and were bad as it sought to make a “collateral attack” upon issues for trial which is not permissible under the law, noting that facts affecting the credibility of witnesses is a “collateral fact”.
“If the evidence which goes to show that Tan Sri Zeti’s family received money is irrelevant, there’s no relevance at all to the charges of the case, the prosecution does not have to serve a copy in advance, that is not part of our case.
“Our case is the accused is literally in fact the shadow director of 1MDB, running these affairs, using these boys as his agents and using Jho Low. My Lord will recall I said in the opening statement, Jho Low was Najib’s mirror image, he used Jho Low, and he and Jho Low acted in tandem. That was the evidence of Shahrol,” Sri Ram said, although noting that he was not asking the High Court to accept this immediately but said the court would be asked to eventually determine the credibility of former 1MDB CEO Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi as a trial witness.
Sri Ram also said it would be for Najib’s lawyers to put the question to Zeti when she testifies on whether her family had received money from Low, but again stressed that this was not a relevant fact for the prosecution’s case involving Najib.
“He can ask Tan Sri Zeti about all these companies and see what she says. As far as Tan Sri Zeti’s application is concerned, whether Bank Negara knew about it, or Tan Sri Zeti knew about it, or red flags were raised or not is wholly irrelevant, it is the accused’s state of knowledge, and that we say is to be inferred from his conduct,” Sri Ram said, noting previous court testimony where Najib was said to have given thousands in cash to his former aide Datuk Amhari Efendi Nazaruddin for trips abroad on 1MDB-linked matters.
As for the second application by Najib which sought for Goldman Sachs data and also former Goldman Sachs official Tim Leissner’s Hong Kong mobile phones, Sri Ram pointed out that the prosecution does not actually have these materials that Najib is asking for.
“Here the documents are not even in our possession, we have no control whatsoever,” he said.
“So to expect us to go to Hong Kong to collect evidence for the accused is to ask us to perform the duties of the defence counsel,” he later added.
After hearing arguments from both the prosecution and Najib’s lawyer, High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah fixed July 12 for the delivery of his decision on the two applications by Najib.
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from Malay Mail - Malaysia
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