TWO CUSHIONS & A BOTTLE OF WATER – EVEN IN THE DOCK, NAJIB DEMANDS HIS COMFORTS: WHAT HAPPENS IN SUNGAI BULOH OR KAJANG PRISONS IF HE’S FOUND GUILTY – WILL HE BE GIVEN PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT BEFITTING HIS OPULENT 1MDB STANDARDS?

8.55am – Decked out in a dark blue suit, former premier Najib Abdul Razak takes a seat at the front row in court as he awaits the ninth day of his trial to begin.

Two cushions and a bottle of water are seen in the dock, where the accused will be seated during proceedings.

The criminal trial of former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak involving the alleged misappropriation of funds from SRC International Sdn Bhd enters its ninth day at the High Court in Kuala Lumpur.

Najib is being tried on three counts of criminal breach of trust (CBT) under Section 409 of the Penal Code; three counts of money laundering under Section 4(1)(b) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 (AMLATFAPUAA) 2001; and one count of abuse of power under Section 23 of the MACC Act 2009.

If convicted, the Pekan MP can be sentenced up to 20 years’ jail, whipping and fine for the CBT charges; 20 years’ jail and a fine not less than five times the amount involved or RM10,000, whichever is higher, for the abuse of power charge; and 15 years’ jail and a fine up to RM15 million or five times the amount involved, whichever is higher, for the money laundering charges.

The trial, being presided over by judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali, is expected to kick off at 9am today with AmBank Raja Chulan branch manager R Uma Devi continuing her testimony over the purported money trail of millions of ringgit contained in a trove of documents seized from the bank in a Bank Negara raid on July 6, 2015.

Yesterday in a testimony that took up much of the day, the 21st witness revealed among others that the AmBank branch had on Aug 11, 2014, received debit instruction to transfer RM3,282,734.16 from Najib’s AmBank account and split the money into the bank’s two credit cards.

She testified that the letter ordered RM449,586.95 to be credited into a Visa Platinum credit card and the balance of RM2,833,147.21 to be credited into a Mastercard Platinum credit card, whereby it was not stated to whom the credit cards belong to.

Uma Devi also revealed that Najib had authorised SRC International director Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil to manage the former’s five AmBank accounts in his capacity as the accounts’ authorised signatory.

The witness’ testimony pointed towards a series of transactions involving millions of ringgit going in and out of the accounts between 2013 and 2015, with RM64 million alone being credited into one of these accounts between July 8, 2014 and Feb 10, 2015.

This includes a sum of RM27 million from Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd, a company that carried out corporate social responsibility works for SRC International.

Attorney-General Tommy Thomas leads the 13-person prosecution team, comprised of deputy public prosecutors Sulaiman Abdullah, V Sithambaram, Manoj Kurup, Ishak Mohd Yusoff, Donald Joseph Franklin, Suhaimi Ibrahim, Muhammad Saifuddin Hashim Musaimi, Sulaiman Kho Kheng Fuei, Budiman Lutfi Mohamed, Mohd Ashraf Adrin Kamaril, Muhammad Izzat Fauzan, and Mohd Ashraf Adrin Kamaril.

Najib is represented by a 13-person defence team led by veteran criminal lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.

Other members of the defence team are former solicitor-general II Mohd Yusof Zainal Abiden, Harvinderjit Singh, Kamarul Hisham Kamaruddin, Chong Loong Men, Devanandan S Subramaniam, Farhan Read, Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohammed, Rahmat Hazlan, Muhammad Farhan Shafee, Tiara Katrina Fuad, Nur Syahirah Hanapiah, and Zahria Eleena Redza.

MKINI