1MDB TRIAL | Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak’s defence team has wrapped up the cross-examination of MACC investigating officer Nur Aida Arifin after 16 days.

This paves the way for the prosecution to begin re-examination of the 49th witness since she took the witness stand on Jan 2 this year.

Lead counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah finished his at times intense grilling of Aida this afternoon before the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

“It is heartening news,” trial judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah remarked during today’s RM2.27 billion 1MDB abuse of power and money laundering case against former finance minister Najib.

During trial dates from Jan 2, Najib’s lawyers grilled Aida for 16 days (which did not include days when other witnesses testified).

When deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib began re-examination, he asked Aida about 81 documents that Malaysian prosecutors obtained from three countries as part of the wide-ranging investigation into the 1MDB affair.

The nations are Singapore, Barbados and Hong Kong (China).

Najib’s 1MDB charges

The trial before Sequerah resumes tomorrow.

Najib is on trial for four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.27 billion from 1MDB.

For the four abuse of power charges, the former Pekan MP allegedly committed the offences at AmIslamic Bank Bhd’s Jalan Raja Chulan branch in Bukit Ceylon, Kuala Lumpur, between Feb 24, 2011, and Dec 19, 2014.

On the 21 money laundering counts, Najib purportedly committed the offences at the same bank between March 22, 2013, and Aug 30, 2013.

1MDB is fully owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated.

Najib was chairperson of 1MDB’s board of advisers.

The accused was first charged on Sept 20, 2018, and his criminal trial began on Aug 28, 2019.

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