Day 36: Riza Aziz ready to testify in Najib's RM2.28b 1MDB trial

LIVE | The criminal trial of former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak involving the alleged abuse of power and money laundering of 1MDB funds enters its 36th day today at the High Court in Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysiakini brings you live reports of the proceedings.

---

KEY HIGHLIGHTS 

• Former CEO: 1MDB meeting minutes 'must protect PM'
• '1MDB replaced auditor over joint-venture assets valuation'
• Counsels ask for more lawyers to be allowed in court
• Riza Aziz ready to testify in Najib's RM2.28b 1MDB trial
• Prosecution to seek contempt against Najib over article

---

Thank you for following Malaysiakini's live report

5.30pm - Thank you for following our live report today.

Reporting by Hidir Reduan Abdul Rashid and Hariz Mohd. Photographs by Azneal Ishak. Social media updates by Ewe Linq Yenn.

If you like what we do, support independent media by joining our subscription programme for as low as RM0.55 a day. Details here.

---

Court adjourns after allowing Friday's proceedings to be postponed

4.37pm - High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah allows the defence's application for the RM2.28 billion 1MDB proceedings on Friday to be postponed.

Lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah tells the court that this is because he has to attend a separate court matter in Shah Alam on that day.

Shafee is referring to the murder trial of Cradle Fund CEO Nazrin Hassan.

Proceedings then adjourn for the day and will resume around 9.30am tomorrow.

---

Former CEO: 1MDB meeting minutes 'must protect PM'

3.45pm - The former CEO of 1MDB tells the Kuala Lumpur High Court that the company's board of directors were instructed to be careful in recording their meetings so as to not jeopardise the then prime minister.

Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi testifies that they were reminded to "be careful" on what they minuted in board meetings.

"If I may, throughout my tenure from 2009 to 2013, members of the board and I were under this pervasive deal that we must be careful on what we minute, or else we will be turned against our main shareholder Najib," he says.

Shahrol says this during cross-examination by lead defence lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.

This comes as the defence presses Shahrol on the minutes of a meeting in July 2010. Shahrol had allegedly failed to give a clear picture at the meeting on why 1MDB auditor Ernst and Young had been delaying to sign off its audit on the company then.

For context, Ernst and Young had supposedly refused to sign off on the 1MDB financial statement it was auditing due to dissatisfaction over how a joint-venture asset that 1MDB had with Petrosaudi was valued.

"It wasn't minuted, but yes I insisted, and yes it was discussed. There was a good reason.

"The phrasing was 'mesti (must) protect PM'," says Shahrol.

According to the witness, they had been ordered not to give extra ammunition for political attacks, hence the order to be careful on what they put on meeting records. 

---

---

'1MDB replaced auditor over joint-venture assets valuation'

3.20pm - Former 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi (above) testifies that the company decided to shorten the service contract of auditor Ernst and Young due to a disagreement on how to value joint-venture assets that 1MDB had with Petrosaudi.

The prosecution witness says that there was a proposal then to replace Ernst and Young with another audit firm, KPMG.

However, Shahrol says he cannot recall whose idea it was for 1MDB to engage KPMG, but does not dismiss the possibility that this could have come from businessperson Jho Low.

---

3.07pm - Former 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi resumes cross-examination by lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.

---

3pm - Proceedings resume after a short break.

---

Counsels ask for more lawyers to be allowed in court

2.35pm - Lead DPP Gopal Sri Ram and head of defence Muhammad Shafee Abdullah seek to have more counsels allowed in court, to enable their teams to function well in the trial.

However, Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah says that he could only allow one more from each team given the circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic.

It is learned that for the time being, only the lead counsel for each team and two other members are allowed to be in the courtroom at one time.

Shafee also suggests to the court to have reporters and lawyers who are watching the trial to be shifted to another courtroom where they can witness it through a live feed.

"(They) can be next door. Priority should be given to counsels," says Shafee.

Gopal had earlier given similar arguments as well, saying that he needed more members of his team inside for a smooth operation.

However, the High Court judge put his foot down and said that he will consider the counsels' request, but for now he would only allow one more from each team.

The court then allows a short break as the defence needs to retrieve documents for the trial and Shafee wants to arrange members of his team to assist him inside in cross-examination of former 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi.

---

---

Riza Aziz ready to testify in Najib's RM2.28b 1MDB trial

2.20pm - Riza Aziz (above) has indicated his readiness to give evidence in his stepfather Najib Abdul Razak's RM2.28 billion 1MDB trial, the High Court hears.

DPP Gopal Sri Ram says that the prosecution may need to revise the witness list as a result.

“We may have to revise our list of witnesses because Riza Aziz has indicated his readiness to give evidence for the prosecution in the case," Sri Ram tells the court.

Recently, Hollywood producer Riza was granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA) by the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court in relation to his 1MDB-linked US$248 million (RM1.07 billion) money laundering case.

---

Prosecution to seek contempt against Najib over article

2.16pm - DPP Gopal Sri Ram informs the court that the prosecution will seek a contempt proceeding against Najib Abdul Razak over an article.

Sri Ram says it is because the article quoting Najib contained a very serious allegation that the ongoing RM2.28 billion trial is unfair.

On March 4, Reuters reported Najib as saying he expects an atmosphere more conducive to a fair trial, following the change in government from Pakatan Harapan to Perikatan Nasional.

During proceedings, Najib's lead counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah asks the prosecution to reconsider its move to seek contempt.

Shafee explains that, after consulting with Najib, what his client said in the Reuters article was not meant to imply that the present court had ever been unfair in the 1MDB proceedings.

Shafee also questions why no contempt proceedings were instituted against former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad over his media statements.

Shafee is referring to media reports over Mahathir's comments regarding Najib's stepson Riza Aziz's discharge not amounting to an acquittal in a US$248 million (RM1.07 billion) money laundering case.

---

2.15pm - Najib Abdul Razak enters the dock as the 1MDB proceedings begin.

---

Najib arrives in court

1.59pm - Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak enters the High Court.

He takes a seat at the front row of the public gallery to await proceedings to begin.

---

Lead defence counsel Shafee enters High Court

1.56pm - Lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah enters the High Court, joining other members of Najib Abdul Razak's defence team.

---

Media, DPP take seats in courtroom

1.30pm - Members of the media start entering the courtroom to take their seats, which had been rearranged to comply with the Health Ministry's guidelines for Covid-19 prevention.

DPP Ahmad Akram Gharib is also seen in the courtroom to fix seatings for lead DPP Gopal Sri Ram and other members of their team.

Meanwhile, the Kuala Lumpur Courts Complex management has also opened two videolink rooms for journalists to monitor the trial through a live feed.  

---

After numerous postponements due to the ongoing movement control order (MCO) among others, the 36th day of former premier Najib Abdul Razak’s trial on the RM2.28 billion 1MDB case is set to resume this afternoon.

The accused’s trial, of over 21 money laundering charges and four abuse of power charges involving RM2.28 billion of 1MDB funds, is fixed before Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah at 2pm today.

Proceedings are expected to resume with the defence, led by veteran lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, to continue cross-examination of the ninth prosecution witness which is the former 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi.

The last time that Shahrol gave oral evidence while under cross-examination was on Nov 11 last year.

However, following numerous postponements since then, the trial was not able to resume until this afternoon.

Among the reasons for postponements were Shahrol and Shafee being on medical leave; Shafee needing to help prepare for his son’s wedding; Shafee and the rest of the defence team going under self-imposed quarantine linked to the Covid-19 pandemic; the nationwide imposition of the MCO on March 18; and Najib needing to attend the single-day Parliament sitting on May 18.

Courts nationwide postponed all trials and hearings when the government imposed the MCO as part of efforts to curb the spread of Covid-19.

Courts only began resuming operation in stages from May 13 as the government relaxed restrictions to allow the economy to gradually reopen as part of the now conditional MCO.

Aside from the above postponement reasons, Najib's other various ongoing criminal trials, such as his RM42 million SRC International case and his 1MDB audit report case between late last year and early this year, only allowed the court to hear his RM2.28 billion 1MDB case this afternoon.