The criminal trial of former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak involving the alleged abuse of power and money laundering of 1MDB funds enters its 15th day today at the High Court in Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysiakini brings you live reports of the proceedings.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
- Jho Low pegged me as a person who is not a 'busybody' - witness
- Shahrol studied at Stanford University, barely managed to graduate
- Witness’ biggest takeaway from RMC was learning chain of command
- Shahrol was top student at Royal Military College
Jho Low pegged me as a person who is not a 'busybody' - witness
10.36am - Wanted businessperson Low Taek Jho (below) had pegged former 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi as a person who is not a busybody, the court hears.
The ninth witness Shahrol tells lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah this during cross-examination.
Shafee is asking Shahrol about paragraph two of his witness statement, where he states that "...Jho Low assessed on my character and personal (aspect) as only carrying out client's orders without asking many questions.
The paragraph in question deals with the time that Shahrol, then managing director at Accenture, first met the fugitive financier in 2007.
Shahrol: What I intended to convey at the time was that Jho Low pegged me as someone who is... I am struggling to find the words here... the word that comes to mind is “kepochi”, busybody is more appropriate here.
Shafee: He (Jho Low) liked your character of just taking instruction without knowing the ultimate journey?
Shahrol: Not quite. I just took enough information necessary to deliver the outcome as I understood it. Anything other than the outcome not relevant to the task at hand, I trusted other people to look at it.
Shahrol studied at Stanford University, barely managed to graduate
10.30am - Former 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi testifies that he furthered his tertiary education in the United States in 1988 by doing pre-university at an institution in Los Angeles before going to Stanford University.
He tells the court that he studied Electrical Engineering, and "barely managed" to graduate five years later in 1994.
According to Shahrol, the normal period for completion of a degree in the course then was four years.
Under cross-examination by the defence, Shahrol says that Stanford at that time was on the top three list of universities for engineering after MIT and Cal Tech.
The witness says after graduating from Stanford, he got his first job at Andersen Consulting, which later became Accenture.
Starting at the company as an intern in 1995, Shahrol then builds up his career to become an analyst, manager, senior manager, and eventually a partner-level executive with a drawn salary of close to RM30,000 before resigning in 2009.
Witness’ biggest takeaway from RMC was learning chain of command
9.50am - The court hears from a former 1MDB CEO that the biggest takeaway from his secondary studies at the Royal Military College (RMC) was learning the chain of command.
Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi (below) says this during the cross-examination by defence lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, who asks the witness if his years of studying in the military school had taught him to be independent.
Shafee: Before you went to university, the five years in military college taught you to be very independent.
Shahrol: Not necessarily. I think the biggest takeaway for me from RMC was the importance of the chain of command.
The witness, however, agrees that the nature of his training at the college had taught him not to take everything blindly.
For the record, it is also worth noting that the lead defence counsel is also a former RMC student, or known as “Old Putera”.
Shahrol was top student at Royal Military College
9.45am - Lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah starts his cross-examination on former 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi over the latter's education background, including his performance during secondary education at the Royal Military College in Sungai Besi.
The court hears from Shahrol that he spent five years studying in RMC from 1983 to 1987 at the college's boys’ wing.
According to the witness, he did "quite well" in RMC, having bagged the Director of Studies’ Award when he completed Form 5 in 1987. Shahrol was in the science stream during his secondary education.
For the record, the Director of Studies award is the recognition for the school’s top student in academics.
The witness also tells the court that he scored A1 in all of his SPM subjects except for Bahasa Malaysia.
When Shafee asks him what he got for Bahasa Malaysia subject, the witness says: "Just enough to enter the civil service, a credit 6."
9.38am - The proceedings resume with former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak's lead counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah (below) beginning the cross-examination of former 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi.
The accused Najib is seen sitting in the dock as Shafee questions the prosecution’s ninth witness Shahrol.
Today is the first day of Najib Abdul Razak's defence's cross-examination of former 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, a key prosecution witness.
As the former prime minister's RM2.28 billion 1MDB trial before Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah enters the 17th day this morning, the ninth prosecution witness Shahrol is expected to undergo extensive grilling by lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.
Last week, Shafee informed the court that the defence would need at least two weeks of hearing to cross-examine Shahrol, who was not short of gripping testimony gleaned from the witness' 270-page Witness Testimony as well as answers derived during examination-in-chief by lead DPP Gopal Sri Ram.
On the final day of his examination-in-chief on Oct 1, Shahrol testified that the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) had instructed him and his successor K Arul Kanda to leave the country when the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) wanted to question them after the 1MDB scandal erupted in 2015.
Shahrol also gave oral evidence that he was coached by fugitive businessperson Low Taek Jho. who also arranged for him to meet with BN members within the PAC, including then Kota Belud MP Abdul Rahman Dahlan, before he was actually questioned by the panel on the beleaguered state-owned fund. - Mkini
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