Prosecution didn't tell us Zeti was being investigated, says Shafee

Najib Abdul Razak's defence team was not aware that former Bank Negara governor Zeti Akthar Aziz was under investigation, according to lead counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.

He was responding to a question on why the defence did not accept the prosecution's offer for Zeti to take the stand during the former premier's RM42 million graft trial involving SRC International.

"In SRC, the prosecution offered her to us as though she was not significant. They never told us Zeti was being investigated," he told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon.

To another question, Shafee said the defence declined the offer because it had no clue regarding her testimony.

"You do not call a witness when you don't know what the person would say.

"If we had known that her family received money from Jho Low, I would have applied under the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) to have the court call her," he added.

Shafee was commenting on his client filing an application today to adduce new evidence to support his defence, six days before the Court of Appeal is slated to deliver its verdict.

'Tommy Thomas knew of Zeti's role'

In a press statement issued later, the senior lawyer also referred to former attorney-general Tommy Thomas' comments on Zeti during an interview on Nov 24.

"... Thomas, during an interview, candidly admitted to knowledge of 'the role of Zeti and her husband in facilitating Jho Low' regarding 1MDB.

"Thomas further revealed that there were investigation papers opened by MACC against the former BNM governor during his tenure as the attorney-general.

"The information recently disclosed above are of material relevance to our client's defence and appears to have been suppressed from our client despite the same being available at the time of his SRC trial that has the effect of prejudicing his defence," he added.

The Court of Appeal fixed Dec 8 to deliver its decision on Najib's appeal to quash the High Court's guilty verdict as well as the 12-year jail term and RM210 million fine in the SRC corruption case.

In his affidavit, Najib said he is seeking to adduce the new evidence after the revelation by MACC that Singapore had repatriated to Malaysia US$15.4 million in 1MDB-linked funds that involved a company co-owned by Zeti's husband, Tawfiq Ayman.

"I verily believe that despite the matters being reported to BNM and Zeti personally, Zeti's role in facilitating Jho Low resulted in no red flags or irregularities being raised on matters relating to the transactions in my (bank) accounts from 2011 to 2015 and further provided means for Jho Low to carry out his manipulations.

"I verily believe that had such evidence been adduced during the trial, the trial court would have arrived at different findings in my favour and resultantly reasonable doubt would have been found to have been raised against the prosecution's case on all the charges, both at the trial court and this honourable Court (of Appeal)," he said. - Mkini