The criminal trial of former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak involving the alleged misappropriation of funds from SRC International Sdn Bhd enters its 44th day today at the High Court in Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysiakini brings you live reports of the proceedings.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
- Authorities order court to be evacuated due to bomb threat
- 'Jho Low insisted Najib's credit card statements not be sent to his house'
- AmBank ex-manager: Jho Low told me Najib wanted to open account
- Prosecution wants to verify email copy tendered by defence
- Jho Low upset AmBank board told of deposits to Najib's accounts
- Jho Low was one of AmBank ex-manager's 'biggest clients'
- Jho Low and Nik Faisal told me not to disclose Najib's name - witness
- Jho Low asked AmBank ex-manager to clear BlackBerry chat logs
- Witness: Jho Low provided letter to justify deposits into Najib's accounts
Authorities order court to be evacuated due to bomb threat
12.25pm - The trial comes to an abrupt halt after Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali is informed that there is a bomb threat on the courthouse.
He orders for the hearing to be adjourned until authorities inspect the courts complex and clear the area.
Everyone inside the court is then told to leave the room immediately and follow police instructions.
'Jho Low insisted Najib's credit card statements not be sent to his house'
12.10pm - Fugitive businessperson Jho Low insisted that Najib Abdul Razak's credit card statements must not be sent to the then premier's house on Jalan Duta.
Former AmBank relationship manager Joanna Yu concurs with the excerpt of a 2011 email exchange between herself and Low, which has been brought up by defence lawyer Harvinderjit Singh.
Harvinderjit: Jho Low's response was, ‘Do not send the statement to his (Najib's) house. Super sensitive. We would collect it’.
Yu: Yes.
Harvinderjit: (Low also said) ‘Credit card statement (must) never go to the house.’
Yu: They always collected (the statements).
Harvinderjit: Jho (Low) insisted?
Yu: Yes, and the mandate holder too.
Yu is referring to former SRC International CEO Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, who was the mandate holder for Najib’s AmBank accounts.
AmBank ex-manager: Jho Low told me Najib wanted to open account
11.35am - The court hears from former AmBank relationship manager Joanna Yu Ging Ping that it was fugitive businessperson Low Taek Jho who told her that then prime minister Najib Abdul Razak had wanted to open an account with the bank.
This supposedly happened before Jan 13, 2011.
Harvinderjit: (Regarding the) opening of this account - it was Jho (Low) who communicated to you an account was proposed to be opened under Datuk Seri’s (Najib) name in AmBank?
Yu: That Datuk Seri wanted to open a bank account, yes.
Harvinderjit: He communicated (this) to you?
Yu: He asked if Datuk Seri want to open (an account), what it would entail.
Prosecution wants to verify email copy tendered by defence
11.20am - DPP V Sithambaram objects to defence counsel Harvinderjit Singh's attempt to have a photocopy of an email marked as defence evidence.
The email contains a series of conversations which purportedly took place in 2014 between fugitive businessperson Jho Low and then AmBank relationship manager Joanna Yu Ging Ping.
Sithambaram tells the court that this was the first time the prosecution had seen the document, and they did not know its source and where it was obtained from.
He says that simple verification, such as the witness saying "maybe", would not be enough for the document to be accepted as evidence yet.
"This is just a photocopy. We don’t know where this comes from, and we want context.
"We want to check on our end, My Lord. This happened way before the BlackBerry (chats) that was produced," says Sithambaram.
To this, Harvinderjit says that it should suffice to mark the evidence by having the witness say "yes" to acknowledge the document's authenticity.
He adds that the court should mark the email copy as 'D', which is code for defence evidence, and that the prosecution can examine it and raise their case later.
Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali then rules that the email be marked as 'IDD' instead of 'D'.
For the record, 'IDD' refers to exhibits which have been brought up in a hearing but have yet to be verified and confirmed, and are thus inadmissible as evidence until then.
Jho Low upset AmBank board told of deposits to Najib's accounts
10.35am - Fugitive businessperson Jho Low was not happy when then AmBank CEO Ashok Ramamurthy brought up the matter of flagged inflows into Najib Abdul Razak's bank accounts with the bank's board.
This is what former AmBank relationship manager Joanna Yu Ging Ping says to a question from lawyer Harvinderjit Singh.
Harvinderjit is referring to chat logs between her and Jho Low in Oct 2014.
It was during a time when bad press began to emerge around the issue of 1MDB and Najib's accounts, among others.
Harvinderjit: These accounts were flagged by Ashok?
Yu: Yes.
Harvinderjit: Ashok raised it at board level and Jho (Low) was not happy?
Yu: He asked why Najib's accounts were put to the board.
Harvinderjit: If they were a genuine gift, it would not have been an issue?
Yu: The bank still (needs) to report.
10.20am - Tanjong Karang MP Noh Omar enters the court and takes a seat directly behind the dock.
The Umno lawmaker then shakes hands with Najib Abdul Razak, who is sitting in the dock, while proceedings are ongoing.
Jho Low was one of AmBank ex-manager's 'biggest clients'
9.54am - Former AmBank relationship manager Joanna Yu Ging Ping testifies that fugitive businessperson Jho Low had been one of the commercial bank's “bigger clients”.
"He was one of the bank's bigger clients," she tells lawyer Harvinderjit Singh when questioned on Low's status as a client
Yu added that Low was also her biggest client.
Jho Low and Nik Faisal told me not to disclose Najib's name - witness
9.32am - Former AmBank relationship manager Joanna Yu Ging Ping agrees that fugitive businessperson Low Taek Jho and former SRC International CEO Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil told her not to disclose Najib Abdul Razak’s name whenever there were funds coming into his AmBank account.
During cross-examination, lawyer Harvinderjit Singh is asking the 54th witness whether she was informed by Low and Nik Faisal, who was also then premier Najib's mandate holder for the accounts, that Najib's name need not be disclosed.
Yu: Yes, we were told we cannot list Datuk Seri (Najib's) name.
Harvinderjit: You were told by Jho (Low) that it involves huge confidentiality of exposed person, so not to expose the name?
Yu: I was told that by Jho (Low).
Jho Low asked AmBank ex-manager to clear BlackBerry chat logs
9.20am - The hearing starts with defence counsel Harvinderjit Singh scrutinising BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) chat transcripts with former AmBank relationship manager Joanna Yu Ging Ping.
The court hears about one of the chats Joanna had with businessperson Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, in which the latter asked her to clear her BBM chat logs.
This happened on the morning of March 3, 2015, according to the transcript read out by Harvinderjit.
Joanna then confirms this conversation, but says that she did not comply with Low’s instruction.
"Yes (Low told me to clear BBM chat logs), but I never did. Because I don't know how to," she testifies.
Joanna disagrees that she had cleared her BBM chat logs after March 2015, and says conversations conducted through the application should have been in her BlackBerry which was confiscated by Bank Negara later that same year.
Witness: Jho Low provided letter to justify deposits into Najib's accounts
9.15am - The court hears from former AmBank relationship manager Joanna Yu Ging Ping that fugitive businessperson Low Taek Jho provided letters to justify deposits into Najib Abdul Razak's accounts.
Under cross-examination by defence counsel Harvinderjit Singh, she confirms that she had received a total of four letters in 2014 as supporting documents for credits into Najib's AmBank accounts with the ending numbers 694 and 880.
Yu says that she had given all the letters to then AmBank Group director Cheah Tek Kuang, who is also a former managing director of the group.
However, she is unsure whether Cheah had shown the letters to then Bank Negara governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz.
Harvinderjit: As far as you are concerned, you did give all the letters to Cheah?
Yu: Yes.
Harvinderjit: Your understanding was that he had shown these to the (Bank Negara) governor?
Yu: I know he met (her) but I don't know what transpired in the meeting.
The witness also confirms a BBM conversation between Low and her on June 20, 2014, where he told Yu to show the letters to Cheah, so that the AmBank Group director could let the Bank Negara governor know about the documents.
9am - The accused, Najib Abdul Razak, enters court and takes a seat in the front row of the public gallery to await the start of proceedings.
Also seen in court is his lawyer Harvinderjit Singh and other members of the defence team, as well as Attorney-General Tommy Thomas, DPP V Sithambaram and other DPPs.
The 44th day of Najib Abdul Razak's SRC International trial is set to proceed this morning, following yesterday's unprecedented postponement due to one of the former prime minister's counsel, Harvinderjit Singh, being unwell.
Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali made it clear yesterday that the defence must make arrangements for other members of the team to cross-examine 54th prosecution witness Joanna Yu Ging Ping today, in the event that Harvinderjit is still on sick leave.
Yesterday was a stark contrast to the usual proceedings, as only two of Najib's junior lawyers Syahirah Hanafiah and Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohammed were present in court, with former AmBank relationship manager Yu looking on from the witness stand.
Wan Aizuddin informed Mohd Nazlan that not only was Harvinderjit, who was initially set to cross-examine Yu, too sick to attend court, but that Najib's lead counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah was preoccupied with wrapping up cases being heard before another Kuala Lumpur High Court judge, Su Geok Yiam, before she retires at the end of this month.
When Mohd Nazlan queried why Najib's other lawyers could not handle the cross-examination, Wan Aizuddin said it was because they received no instructions about it.
After reminding the two lawyers of the need for alternative arrangements, Mohd Nazlan allowed proceedings to be postponed until today.
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