Former premier Najib Abdul Razak's complaint about his charge sheet over his criminal breach of trust (CBT) case not being made available earlier is just a red herring, said lawyer Rafique Rashid Ali.

The criminal law practitioner said it was "not highly irregular" for charges only to be read in court in every criminal matter.

In most cases, Rafique added, the charge sheet would never be handed to the defence counsel or the accused except upon request by the attending lawyer.

"The charge sheet is only one of the many preliminaries in a trial. The actual trial has not started. The defence is not in any position of disadvantage at all.

"Having the charge sheet a week or a month before one is officially charged will not also mean a thing since it is during the trial process that 'the real fun' starts when the defence will be allowed every opportunity to test the prosecution's case.

"Hence in a nutshell, whatever comments made in relation to a charge sheet not being made available earlier are nothing but a red herring," Rafique told Malaysiakini.

He added that the charge sheet was only to make sure the accused understand the nature of the offence and would not in any way prejudice the defence.

Rafique was commenting on Najib's remarks at the Kuala Lumpur Courts Complex yesterday, where the latter expressed his regret that the prosecution led by Gopal Sri Ram into his CBT trial had only provided his charge sheet just five minutes before the court went into session.

Najib and former Treasury secretary-general Irwan Serigar Abdullah were earlier jointly charged at the Sessions Court in Kuala Lumpur to six counts of CBT of RM6,636,065,000 of funds belonging to the government.

Both of them pleaded not guilty.