The prosecution will make available all the 17,000 documents surrendered by Swiss whistleblower Xavier Justo to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) during the 1MDB investigation.
Lead DPP Gopal Sri Ram said this to the High Court in Kuala Lumpur after judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah allowed Najib Abdul Razak to inspect but not obtain the documents, which were contained in a thumb drive.
The former prime minister had made the application in relation to his ongoing RM2.28 billion 1MDB trial.
Justice Sequerah ordered the prosecution to make the documents available within three weeks from this date.
Earlier, in his ruling following submissions by defence counsel Al Firdaus Shahrul Naing and prosecutor Sri Ram this morning, the judge ruled that the disclosure of the documents to Najib would not jeopardise public interest, as contended by the prosecution.
“I do not find anything to substantiate (the prosecution’s application) that public interest would be affected by the disclosure.
“The class of documents has been identified by the applicant (Najib) so this is not a fishing expedition. It is relevant to the charge faced by the applicant in the defence,” Justice Sequerah said.
The judge was referring to the prosecution’s submission that the documents contained in the thumb drive handed by Justo to the MACC cannot be disclosed to the prosecution as it would affect public interest, as per Section 124 of the Evidence Act 1950.
Section 124 states that no public officer shall be compelled to disclose communications made to him in official confidence when he considers that public interest would suffer by the disclosure.
The section also has an added proviso stating the court may require the officer’s head of department to certify in writing whether or not such disclosure would be detrimental to the public interest and, if the head of the department certifies that such disclosure would not be prejudicial to the public interest, then the officer shall disclose the communications.
The prosecution today submitted the point of safeguarding the public interest in relation to MACC deputy chief commissioner Azam Baki, who had received the thumb drive from Justo (below).
“With regard to Section 124 of the Evidence Act, the respondent’s (prosecution’s) claim of privilege can be reviewed by the court, so the matter (public interest) is not conclusive just because the head of the department says so,” Justice Sequerah said.
The judge then allowed the first part of Najib’s application, which was in relation to inspecting the documents contained in the thumb drive.
The second part of the application was in relation to obtaining said the documents to assist Najib’s defence in preparing their cross-examination of prosecution witnesses during the ongoing prosecution stage of the RM2.28 billion 1MDB trial, which is set to resume on Jan 7 next year.
Justice Sequerah then asked Sri Ram how many copies of documents were contained in the thumb drive, to which the lead DPP replied: “17,000 documents.”
The judge then directed for the 17,000 documents to be made available to the defence for inspection over the next three weeks from today.
Sri Ram then replied that he has advised for the thumb drive to be handed to the prosecution so they can go through the documents.
When met after proceedings, Sri Ram confirmed with the media that the prosecution decided to hand over the all the 17,000 documents to Najib’s defence.
On Nov 21, it was reported that the High Court in Kuala Lumpur had set today to hear Najib's application to obtain and inspect documents surrendered by Justo to the MACC as part of the 1MDB investigation.
In the application, Najib sought for a court order to compel the prosecution or any other entities that have the custody, care and control of documents that Justo surrendered to the MACC in relation to 1MDB's joint venture with PetroSaudi International Ltd, either in its physical form or as retrieved from a digital storage device, for his inspection, among others.
The trial is tentatively set to resume on Jan 7, with Najib’s defence team set to continue with the cross-examination of the ninth prosecution witness, former 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi. - Mkini
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