Former 1MDB Chief Executive Officer (CEO) K Arul Kanda objected to his co-accused ex-prime minister Najib Abdul Razak’s bid to again try to postpone the duo’s case of alleged tampering of the 1MDB final audit report, which is scheduled on Monday.
Arul Kanda’s (above) counsel M Sivananthan told Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan that his client just wished to proceed with the trial as he (Arul Kanda) wished to be able to clear his name.
Today was fixed for hearing of Najib’s application to postpone the hearing of the matter which was set for Monday.
The former prime minister’s counsel Harvinderjit Singh submitted that his client sought the postponement in order to prepare Najib to take the witness stand in the upcoming defence stage of his RM42 million SRC International case on Dec 3.
Harvinderjit (below) said that his client seeks to postpone the 1MDB audit report tampering trial to January next year.
Najib was allowed by Zaini to be exempted from attending today's open-court proceedings.
It is understood that Najib is helping the BN opposition in its campaign in the runup to the Tanjung Piai by-election, which is set for this Saturday.
Previously, there were already two attempts to postpone the trial, with the first one rejected by Zaini on Oct 7, and the second one turned down by Zaini on Wednesday this week.
“Lest we forget, we have another accused (Arul Kanda) in the (1MDB audit report tampering case) whose interest must be protected, not just the applicant (Najib, who is seeking to postpone the trial).
“This matter has already been fixed (for trial on Monday) before this court. During those (proceedings before Zaini) to fix those dates, Najib should have taken into account another trial (RM42 million SRC International) running in between (before agreeing) for court to standardise the dates.
“Applicant (Najib) should have taken the position that if the defence is called (for the RM42 million SRC International case), then I (Najib) am in no position for the (1MDB audit report tampering) trial,” Sivananthan argued.
“As much as I understand the applicant (Najib), my client Arul Kanda has been in a dark cloud for some time.
“He is very anxious for the 1MDB audit report tampering case trial to proceed and he defend himself. It is unfair for everyone to be talking about interests of Najib while he (Arul Kanda) just sits there listening in court.
“The court should look at the interest of all accused persons (both Najib and Arul Kanda) and not just one (Najib).
“They (prosecution led by lead DPP Gopal Sri Ram) is in a good position to start with formal witnesses in the 1MDB audit report tampering trial whose testimony will merely be on procedural aspects of the case such as filing of documents rather than the contents of the documents,” Sivananthan (above) said.
DPP Ahmad Akram Gharib, who appeared for the prosecution, raised objection to the said bid, claiming that it is part of a pre-plan to postpone the RM42 million SRC International trial.
The DPP then reads out a paragraph of Najib’s postponement application, which he alleged backed this assertion of the said plan to postpone the RM42 million SRC International trial.
“That the continuation of the trial in the present proceedings (followed by the case numbers for Najib’s RM42 million SRC International cases) and commencement of the case for the defence, be adjourned to a date to be fixed by this honourable court.
"This to enable the defence to review the statements delivered pursuant to the orders above and/or undertake any other action necessary to effectively prepare for the defence case,” Akram read out the paragraph from Najib’s application to postpone the 1MDB audit report tampering case trial.
The word “statements” in the above paragraph referred to a separate application by Najib in the RM42 million SRC International case.
The accused sought to compel the prosecution to hand over list and statements given by over 60 individuals to MACC and the police, but who were never called to testify in the prosecution stage of the SRC International trial.
Najib’s application for the prosecution to hand over the said statements are set for hearing before Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali at 2.30pm this afternoon.
Nazlan (above) is also the judge hearing Najib’s RM42 million SRC International case.
Akram claimed that the said paragraph showed that Najib’s defence team is not telling the whole truth in relation to the application to postpone the 1MDB audit report tampering case.
The DPP claimed that it has to do with Najib’s defence later purportedly would try to get the RM42 million SRC International case be postponed to allow them to go through the statements in the said SRC International case (if Nazlan allows the bid to obtain the statements from the prosecution).
“This paragraph showed that it is not telling the whole truth. In the (RM42 million) SRC International case, they (Najib’s defence team) are seeking statements recorded from witnesses in the course of investigation (into the RM42 million SRC International case), and to review that (statements).
“I submit that there is already a plan (by Najib’s defence team) to postpone the case and there was a pre-plan to postpone the defence (stage of Najib’s RM42 million SRC International trial) as well,” Akram argued.
The DPP also informed the court that it had already previously set the 1MDB audit report tampering case to proceed on Monday, and that it would not look good on not only the judiciary but the judge as well.
Zaini then told the prosecution and defence that he would deliver his decision on Najib’s postponement application on Monday morning, but reminded them to prepare for full trial of the 1MDB audit report tampering case in the event that he rejects the application. - Mkini
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