KUALA LUMPUR, March 7 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s trial over the alleged tampering of the auditor-general’s audit report on 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) will not be going on this week as scheduled.
The High Court was told today that Najib’s lead lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah is not currently in the country.
Rahmat Hazlan — another one of Najib’s lawyers — confirmed one of the reasons the trial can’t be held this week is because Shafee will only be back in Malaysia tomorrow from the UK where he will then need to undergo the mandatory quarantine.
“He is arriving tomorrow morning and has to serve a five-day quarantine (since already taken the booster),” Rahmat told Malay Mail when contacted this morning.
Jointly charged is former 1MDB chief executive officer Arul Kanda Kandasamy, whose lawyer Datuk N. Sivananthan also has another case to attend.
Rahmat confirmed that another reason for the trial being postponed was due to Arul Kanda’s lead defence lawyer Sivananthan being involved in other cases.
Both Najib and Arul Kanda were seen at the Kuala Lumpur court complex today.
When contacted, Sivananthan similarly confirmed to Malay Mail that the trial has been postponed as Shafee would have to quarantine for five days upon arrival from London.
Previously, it was reported that Shafee and Najib’s defence lawyer Harvinderjit Singh would be travelling to the UK and that they would return to Malaysia on March 8.
The trip by Shafee and Harvinderjit to the UK is in relation to plans to have a Queen’s Counsel — a term referring to leading senior lawyers in the UK who generally handle more complex cases — represent Najib in his appeal at the Federal Court against his conviction over the misappropriation of RM42 million from ex-1MDB unit SRC International Sdn Bhd.
The joint trial of Najib and Arul Kanda was initially scheduled to be heard in the High Court from today until Thursday this week, but it did not go on today.
When contacted, deputy public prosecutor Mohamad Mustaffa P. Kunyalam confirmed to Malay Mail that the case was mentioned before High Court deputy registrar Catherine Nicholas today, and that the trial had been vacated for the whole week upon the request of the defence lawyers.
Mustaffa confirmed the reasons for the trial being vacated this week was due to Shafee having to observe the quarantine period upon his arrival from London and also due to Sivananthan having another part-heard trial to attend.
The joint trial of Najib and Arul Kanda is set to resume on March 28 to March 31, which were trial dates previously scheduled.
Other previously scheduled trial dates for this case are in April to June and in August and September.
In this trial, Najib is charged with abusing his position as prime minister and finance minister to receive self-gratification in the form of protection from civil or criminal action regarding his role in handling 1MDB’s operations, by ordering amendments in February 2016 to the auditor-general’s audit report on 1MDB before it was presented to Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee.
Arul Kanda was charged with abetting Najib in the tampering of the 1MDB audit report.
Source: Malay Mail
