KUALA LUMPUR: The corruption and abuse of power trial of former prime minister Najib Razak resumes today after a week’s break with the prosecution looking to wrap up its case by Aug 15.
High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali presides over the trial which began on April 3. He will hear the case for another 23 working days.
Deputy public prosecutor Ishak Mohd Yusoff is expected to continue his examination of the 42nd witness, former SRC International Sdn Bhd director Suboh Md Yassin.
Najib’s lawyers, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah and Harvinderjit Singh, are then expected to cross-examine Suboh for a few days.
On June 20, Attorney-General Tommy Thomas sought to postpone Najib’s 1MDB trial for money laundering and abuse of power from its scheduled start on Aug 19.
He told High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah that Najib’s SRC International trial is ongoing and that his prosecution team would not be able to wrap up the case by Aug 15 and allow the 1MDB prosecution team to take over on Aug 19.
“What I can tell the court is that over 40 people have testified in the SRC International case, and we are calling 25 more.
“The trial is moving more slowly than we expected,” he said, adding that the 1MDB trial should be postponed to Oct 1.
Sequerah told Thomas to return on July 15 to update him on the SRC International case.
Najib was slapped with 25 charges of money laundering and abuse of power last September over alleged 1MDB funds in his AmBank account.
The former prime minister was accused of abusing his position to obtain RM2.28 billion in bribes in February 2011 and December 2014.
He was also said to have transferred the RM2.28 billion in illegal funds to his bank account, and to have subsequently used the money.
In the ongoing case, Najib is facing three counts of criminal breach of trust, one charge of abusing his position and three counts of money laundering over SRC International funds amounting to RM42 million.
He is also accused of abusing his power as prime minister by giving government guarantees on SRC International’s RM4 billion loan from Retirement Fund Inc.
The Pekan MP was charged with committing the offences at AmIslamic Bank Bhd on Jalan Raja Chulan and the Prime Minister’s Office in Putrajaya between Aug 17, 2011, and Feb 10, 2015. - FMT
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