Prosecution warns Najib’s lawyer Shafee over trial by media

1MDB TRIAL | Lead deputy public prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram has warned Najib Abdul Razak’s lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah from conducting a trial in the media over the former premier’s RM2.28 billion 1MDB corruption case.

Sri Ram (above, left) said a media statement by Shafee yesterday amounted to an attack on the prosecution over claims that prosecutors suppressed evidence in the case.

“With all due respect, the accused must conduct his trial in court and not in public.

“We were put in an invidious (an action or situation likely to arouse or incur resentment or anger in others) position as we cannot respond in public,” the prosecutor told the Kuala Lumpur High Court today.

He added that if the defence continues to do this then the prosecution would have to apply to bar the defence from further doing so.

At this juncture, Najib’s co-defence counsel Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohammed said that Shafee would be attending proceedings tomorrow to respond to the prosecution.

Aizuddin said the lead defence counsel was unable to attend trial today due to not being well.

Trial judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah then said the court would wait until tomorrow for Shafee to come and give his response in the matter.

Proceedings then resumed with Aizuddin resuming his cross-examination of 38th prosecution witness R Uma Devi, who is the manager of AmBank’s branch at Jalan Raja Chulan, Kuala Lumpur.

The 1MDB trial is expected to continue tomorrow and on Thursday this week as well.

During a press conference at the Kuala Lumpur Courts Complex yesterday, Shafee (above, right) made the claim in relation to alleged Arab letters that purportedly promised donations to Najib between 2011 and 2012.

The lawyer had distributed written media statements that contained the allegation that the prosecution had failed to disclose or deliver to the defence particulars of the transactions.

In the same media briefing, the lawyer also announced they are mulling legal action to allow the accused as Pekan MP to attend Parliament, in spite of the prison authorities refusing to allow this.

Previously during the trial, the former prime minister’s legal team had raised claims regarding several purported Arab letters that promised over a billion US dollars to the accused.

Abuse of power, money laundering

Before Sequerah, Najib is on trial for four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.28 billion from 1MDB.

In relation to the four abuse of power charges, the Pekan MP was alleged to have committed the offence at AmIslamic Bank Berhad’s Jalan Raja Chulan branch in Bukit Ceylon, Kuala Lumpur, between Feb 24, 2011, and Dec 19, 2014.

On the 21 money laundering counts, the former finance minister is purported to have committed the offences at the same bank between March 22, 2013, and Aug 30, 2013.

In the prosecution’s opening statement at the beginning of the trial on Aug 28, 2019, Sri Ram contended that the crime was allegedly committed through four phases spanning from 2011 to 2014.

Prosecutors contended that the first nine money laundering charges relate to alleged receiving of RM2,081,476,926 which forms the subject matter of the amended third charge and that the monies purportedly fell into the accused's account ending 694 with AmIslamic Bank.

The prosecution claimed that between Aug 2, 2013, and Aug 23, 2013, the accused transferred a sum of RM2,034,350,000 to Tanore Singapore.

Prosecutors alleged that simultaneously, the accused had used the balance of RM22,649,000 to pay four entities and one individual.

The prosecution contends that all these payments purportedly benefitted the accused.

They also contended that Najib received US$20 million (RM60,629,839.43) of 1MDB’s funds from one Prince Faisal via two tranches of US$10 million each - the first tranche was on Feb 24, 2011, and the second tranche on June 14, 2011.

The prosecution contended that the wrongdoing at 1MDB was carried out by fugitive businessperson Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, and several others with Najib’s blessing.

The accused’s defence team, however, claimed that the former prime minister had no knowledge of the crime perpetrated at 1MDB and the embezzlement was solely masterminded by Low and other members of the fund’s management.

1MDB is fully owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MOF Inc).

Najib also used to be the chairperson of 1MDB’s board of advisers.

The BN advisory chairperson is serving a 12-year jail sentence after the Federal Court on Aug 23 dismissed his appeal against the SRC International conviction over seven criminal charges, as well as the custodial term and RM210 million fine in lieu of an additional five years in jail.

Initially a subsidiary of 1MDB, SRC later became fully owned by MOF Inc. Najib also used to be adviser emeritus to SRC.

During today’s 1MDB trial, Najib is seen in the dock, while a few Kajang Prison officers were seen seated nearby in the public gallery of the courtroom.

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