The fresh charges levelled against Najib Abdul Razak yesterday is to punish the latter for BN’s victory in Cameron Highlands, an aide to the former prime minister claimed.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the aide told Malaysiakinithat Najib’s statement was recorded at the Kuala Lumpur Courts Complex about 30 minutes before he was slapped with the charges.
The authorities, he added, also took Najib’s fingerprints and photographs as if this was a new case.
“I think this was done to punish Najib because of what happened in Cameron Highlands. I suspect this (is the case), as Najib did well in Cameron Highlands.
“You see, the prosecution said these are the same charges. But if they were the same, why did they take his photograph and fingerprints again like it was a new case? All of this happened on the ground floor of the court.
“They questioned him, took his photograph and fingerprints at the registry of the lower court. This has never happened before. It is as if they wanted to victimise and humiliate him,” he added.
Contacted later, Najib’s lead counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah also criticised the three additional charges and accused the prosecution of being “negligent”.
Shafee said the additional money laundering charges were brought barely two weeks before Najib’s trial on the charges related to SRC International is scheduled to start.
He noted that the prosecution also introduced amendments to six previous charges, and this left the defence team with little time to prepare their case.
“My objection was that out of the blue, the attorney-general signed his consent to the new charges. And on the same day, they recorded a statement from Najib.
“They forced Najib to give a statement. All of this happened yesterday.
“This is a matter on which the prosecution claimed they were ready many months ago, and is the same as the one he was charged for previously.
“If it is the same matter, how come the prosecution was not ready?” Shafee (photo) asked.
Yesterday, Najib was slapped with fresh charges under the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act 2001 (Amlatfa), which was read out to him before Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali at the High Court in Kuala Lumpur.
The charges were levelled during the case management for seven other charges against Najib related to SRC International, a former subsidiary of 1MDB.
Shafee also questioned the prosecution for stating that the new charges were the same with the three previous charges.
He pointed out that the quantum of money in the previous and new charges was different, as well as the bank account number and dates.
“The dates are at least six months apart. Six months difference between these three (new) charges and the previous three charges. (They were) different transactions. So how come they said the cases are the same?
“The thing is, the prosecution was negligent,” he added.
Shafee said this was the reason for the defence asking Justice Nazlan to set another date to hear their submission.
He added that the defence also needed time to relook the matter since the prosecution has two more volumes of documents to serve on them.
– M’kini
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