NAJIB TRIAL | Najib Abdul Razak's defence team is to review the status of Ismee Ismail as the 39th witness in the former prime minister's trial of abuse of power, graft and money laundering involving RM42 million from SRC International.
This came in the wake of Najib's trial coming to a halt at midday today to allow the defence to check for alleged contradictions in the overall testimony of Ismee, the former chairperson of SRC International.
Ismee testified in court today that SRC International's board of directors (BOD) follows the company's shareholders resolution rather than the advice of Najib as advisor emeritus of the company.
However, Ismee's written witness statement filed with the court states that the BOD follows the advice of Najib as advisor emeritus of SRC International.
The witness statement is the same one that the MACC recorded from Ismee in the course of its investigation.
High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali (photo, below) allowed the application by Najib's lead counsel, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, for the trial to be adjourned and to resume at 9am tomorrow.
This is to give time to the defence to peruse Ismee's witness transcripts since his testimony over the course of the trial.
"We have reached a threshold in the cross-examination where we need to look at the bundle of (witness transcript) documents and make up our mind to see whether there are areas of contradiction.
"For that, we require to look at the (SRC BOD) resolution and also study the transcript thus far, of this witness, on the (alleged) need to take instruction from the (then) PM (Najib).
"In view of the large number of counsel (in the defence team), we require consultation among ourselves," Shafee said.
DPP V Sithambaram agreed with the defence lawyer's application to adjourn the matter to tomorrow.
"From the cross-examination by the defence, we read certain documents and perhaps (there were) possible contradictions.
"We feel best (for the adjournment be allowed) for (defence) deciding on the next course of action.
"This short adjournment will save time (for the court) in regard to further direction (from the court).
"I support my learned friend's application with a cool mind and (for the defence) to make a decision tomorrow (based on what the defence finds in Ismee's court transcript)," Sithambaram (photo, below) said.
Shafee said that the adjournment until tomorrow morning was required as the defence needed to go through the entire transcripts, which would take up the whole of this afternoon and tonight.
Justice Nazlan: You need the rest of the day?
Shafee: Yes, this application is necessary.
Justice Nazlan: We start tomorrow, at 9am.
When the judge asked if there was any other matter that Shafee needed to attend to tomorrow, the veteran lawyer apologised for the proceedings beginning late, at 9.45am today, because he needed to attend the mention of his RM9.5 million money laundering case at another bench of the High Court.
Justice Nazlan then allowed the trial to be adjourned for the day and to resume at 9am tomorrow.
Ismee's oral evidence disrupted proceedings
Earlier today, Ismee testified that SRC International's BOD acted on the company's shareholders' resolution.
This went against what he stated in his tendered written Witness Statement, which he had read out in court several days ago.
The Witness Statement states that SRC International's BOD acted on the advice of (the then) prime minister Najib in his capacity as advisor emeritus of the company.
In its much earlier proceedings, the court heard on how the then 1MDB subsidiary became a fully-owned entity of Minister of Finance Incorporated in early 2012.
Early 2012 also saw an amendment to SRC International's articles of association, which saw the insertion of Article 117.
Article 117 states that Najib was appointed as the company's advisor emeritus and that the BOD needed to give serious consideration to and implement the advice of the advisor emeritus. - Mkini
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