Najib still in hospital over knee pain, sleep apnea

1MDB TRIAL | Najib Abdul Razak is still warded at Kuala Lumpur Hospital (HKL), not only for pain in his right knee but also for sleep apnea.

As a result, the Kuala Lumpur High Court vacated today's and tomorrow's trial dates for the former premier’s RM2.27 billion power abuse and money laundering case.

The criminal trial was also vacated two days ago and yesterday due to Najib’s hospitalisation for his knee issue.

While judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah presided over open-court proceedings today, the government hospital’s senior orthopedic consultant Dr Siti Hawa Tahir explained that Najib is still on medical leave.

She said that the 71-year-old accused is on opioids, which causes drowsiness and renders him unfit to attend the trial.

"He (Najib) still has knee inflammation based on our evaluation. He needs two days of rest for his joints.

"The opioids have side effects, which are drowsiness and nausea," the doctor explained.

Siti Hawa pointed out that HKL doctors needed to monitor Najib who is on opioids due to concerns over his sleep apnea, which involved breathing problems while sleeping.

Lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah chipped in to say that when he visited Najib at HKL yesterday, the former finance minister fell asleep after reading two pages of an “engaging book”.

The lawyer described this as different from Najib's usual attentive behaviour.

The trial will resume on Tuesday next week.

25 charges

Najib is on trial over 25 counts encompassing abuse of power and money laundering of RM2.27 billion funds 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 and Aug 30, 2013.

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

On May 30 this year, the prosecution closed its case, six years after the former prime minister was first charged in late 2018.

The proceedings are now in the oral submissions stage, which involves no witness testimonies, only legal teams summing up whether the oral and documentary evidence implicates or exonerates Najib.

Fifty witnesses took the stand for the prosecution, including 1MDB’s former general counsel Jasmine Loo.

Loo was allegedly part of key 1MDB figure Low Taek Jho’s (Jho Low) inner circle. Authorities are still tracking down Low.

Prosecutors claimed that Najib received RM2.27 billion misappropriated from the troubled sovereign wealth fund between 2011 and 2014.

However, Najib’s defence team contended that the former premier had no knowledge of any wrongdoing at 1MDB and that any wrongdoing that may have happened was solely masterminded by Low and members of the fund’s management.

The former finance minister also previously contended that the late King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia promised the accused financial donation for political purposes.

Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib prosecuted.

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