KUALA LUMPUR: Najib Razak’s lawyer told the High Court today that the former prime minister would be deprived of a fair trial as the seven charges related to SRC International Sdn Bhd are vague and he is unable to put up a credible defence.
Kamarul Hisham Kamruddin said a fair trial is a fundamental right for any accused person.
“A fair trial is akin to the right to life under our Federal Constitution. Najib would be put at a disadvantage if the charges are defective,” the lawyer said in his submission before judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali.
Kamarul also said his client has the right to obtain the details of the charges from the prosecution so that he can raise his defence at the earliest opportune time.
He was submitting an application filed by Najib, who is seeking to quash the charges unless the prosecution amends them in the trial which began on April 3.
The application is based on grounds that the charges against Najib are defective in form and substance, and that they constitute an abuse of court process.
Najib faces six charges of money laundering and criminal breach of trust (CBT) in the transfer of RM42 million to his account from SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB.
He is also accused of abusing his power as prime minister by giving government guarantees on SRC International’s RM4 billion loan from Retirement Fund Inc.
The Pekan MP was charged with committing the offences at AmIslamic Bank Bhd in Jalan Raja Chulan and the Prime Minister’s Office in Putrajaya between Aug 17, 2011, and Feb 10, 2015.
Another counsel representing Najib, Mohd Yusof Zainal Abiden, submitted that the CBT charges are defective as the prosecution did not state how he had committed the offences.
“Moreover, it is wrong for the prosecution to lump three CBT charges together when the offences were allegedly committed in 2014. He should only face one charge,” he added.
Yusof also said Najib should have been charged with CBT or abuse of power, but not both.
“The ingredients to prove both offences are similar,” he said, adding that Najib would punished twice if convicted.
The three money laundering charges, he added, are not a principal offence unlike CBT and abuse of power.
“The charge merely states that the money was allegedly the proceeds of unlawful activity. The prosecution must indicate what the predicate offence is.
“Therefore, the charges for the Amla offences as they stand are vague,” he said, referring to the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001.
Yusof said Najib could not be charged with money laundering together with CBT and abuse of power as the first is only reserved for a subsidiary offender.
Deputy public prosecutor V Sithambaram, meanwhile, submitted that the CBT, abuse of power and money laundering charges are distinct offences and come under laws approved by Parliament.
“All have different ingredients for the prosecution to prove its case against accused persons,” he said.
Sithambaram also said Najib would have understood the charges as the prosecution had supplied 7,000 pages of documents to be used in trial, apart from the charge sheets.
“I don’t think the prosecution misled the accused to the extent that there would be a miscarriage of justice,” he added.
Sithambaram said the prosecution could amend the charges before closing its case, while the trial judge could do the same at any time before delivering judgment.
So far, he said, 21 prosecution witnesses had testified and were cross-examined by the defence, with no complaint of lack of clarity regarding the charges.
He also said Najib’s lawyers had submitted their proposed defence as required for the abuse of power charge, and that they had not complained that all seven charges were defective when the accused claimed trial last year.
Nazlan will deliver his ruling on Monday. - FMT
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