Judge irked after being asked to postpone 1MDB trial again

NAJIB TRIAL | High Court judge Colin Lawrence Sequerah appeared upset today after being asked, again, to postpone the 1MDB trial against former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak.

The trial had been postponed once before from the original April 15 start date. It was supposed to start on May 14 and continue for 14 working days until June 21.

This morning, the judge heard from both the prosecution led by Attorney-General Tommy Thomas and the defence led by lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah on the prosecution's application to vacate those 14 days of the hearing.

This is to allow a separate High Court hearing on the SRC International case - which also involves Najib - to conclude before the commencement of the 1MDB case.

After Thomas told Justice Colin’s court about the prosecution's request and reasons behind their application for the postponement, the judge asked both parties for their "generous" estimation of how long the SRC trial would go on at judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali’s court.

To this, Thomas said the prosecution believes they may be "very close" to the SRC case's conclusion by June 21, and suggested that a case management date can be set on that date to decide on dates for the 1MDB trial.

However, Shafee told the court that the defence would need to take into consideration that Najib may be called to enter a defence in the SRC trial, in which case they would ask Justice Nazlan for a 14-day break to make preparations.

By this time, Justice Collin appeared to be dissatisfied.

'I need a commitment'

The judge noted that this would be the second time he was asked to vacate dates for the 1MDB hearing, which had already caused him to postpone other cases before him.

"1MDB is also a public interest case. I have to vacate other cases... murder, 39B (Section 39B of Dangerous Drugs Act for trafficking) to give way to 1MDB.

"This is the second time I am asked to vacate (dates for 1MDB)," he said.

Later, after hearing Shafee’s arguments, Justice Colin asked the defence lawyer’s suggestion on dates for 1MDB case, to which Shafee suggested that it should be "nothing earlier than August".

The judge said he wants both parties to find dates that they can commit to, as he does not want the hearing to be staggered.

He then suggested pushing the date further back to September.

Justice Collin: We forget about August. Can I start in September?

Shafee: Safer.

Justice Collin: I need dates. Not staggered. I need commitment. One month not enough (for 1MDB trial)?

Shafee: (For) 1MDB, one month is not enough.

Justice Collin: We fix for the whole of September (then).

The judge then called upon both parties to put their other cases in the ‘backburner’ as well to give priority to the 1MDB hearing.

Collin reminded that he too had to vacate his other cases for the 1MDB trial.

The prosecution said they were agreeable to this arrangement, and suggested that the court set dates for the trial to go on until the second week of November.

Another problem arises

However, as the matter appeared to be winding up, Shafee suddenly told the court that the defence has to attend the murder trial of Samirah Muzaffar (who is accused of killing Cradle Fund CEO Nazrin Hassan) that is scheduled in early September.

He asked whether the judge could start the 1MDB hearing in the second week of September instead.

This request appeared to irk Justice Collin further.

"Can't you write (to the court presiding the murder case)? Now I cannot even set (the hearing for 1MDB) in September," said Collin.

Shafee said: "I suggest mid-September. I will give my commitment. I will write (to the court) as my lord suggested."

Thomas then interjected, saying that the 1MDB case should be given priority over the murder case.

"I am sorry, but Samirah's case is just another murder case," said Thomas.

The judge then suggested starting the 1MDB trial in mid-August, and then to give way to the Cradle Fund case’s trial dates.

The discussion continued for about another 10 minutes, during which another defence counsel, Harvinderjit Singh, told the court about other cases that they have before Justice Nazlan in July and August.

This prompted Justice Collin to put his foot down, saying that he cannot be worrying about cases in other courts.

The court then set the 1MDB trial to run from Aug 19 to the second week of November, except on Fridays.

Justice Collin also ruled that the dates in September would depend on the defence's application to postpone the Cradle Fund case at the High Court in Shah Alam. - Mkini