The criminal trial of ex-premier Najib Abdul Razak and former 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy involving the alleged tampering with 1MDB's final audit report enters its seventh day today at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.
Malaysiakini brings you live reports of the proceedings.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
- Court adjourns, proceedings to commence at 2pm tomorrow
- Ali Hamsa: 1MDB's differing account statements 'dangerous evidence'
- Retired NAD auditor very frustrated with Feb 2016 meeting
- Witness only realised voice recorder placed in her pencil case after meeting
- 'Meetings to amend NAD audit report never happened before in my career'
- Saadatul Nafisah completes reading from her witness statement
- Saadatul told to wait for Najib's greenlight before printing audit report
- Mention of Jho Low to be removed from final audit report
- Ex-NAD officer ordered to send audit report's final draft to Najib's secretary
- Former National Audit Department officer Saadatul Nafisah takes the stand
Proceedings start at 2pm tomorrow
2.06pm - Proceedings adjourn and will resume at 2pm tomorrow as Najib Abdul Razak's lead counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah has to attend back to back court matters.
Ali Hamsa warned meeting of 1MDB's differing account statements
1.10pm - As the court continues to listen to the audio recording purportedly from a meeting that discussed 1MDB audit report in Feb 2016, the prosecution asks witness Saadatul Nafisah on a particular reference made by Ali Hamsa, the then chief secretary to the government.
DPP Akram Gharib points out to Saadatul, who is a retired National Audit Department officer, to Ali's remarks where he referred to something as "a very dangerous material evidence".
The witness then tells the court that Ali was referring to the two different account statements that was provided by the 1MDB to the Companies Commission (SSM) and Minister of Finance Incorporated.
DPP: Tan Sri Ali Hamsa saying: 'A very dangerous material evidence'. What is the reference?
Saadatul: We have the evidence of the two accounts
DPP: And that is the dangerous material?
Saadatul: Yes, and we can prove there are two accounts (statements)
Court proceedings resume
12.23pm - DPP Gopal Sri Ram then seeks for the High Court to play again the two hours and 45-minute audio recording of the Feb 24, 2016 meeting.
The playback is to assist seventh prosecution witness and retired National Audit Department officer Saadatul Nafisah Bashir Ahmad when the prosecution asks her further questions during examination-in-chief.
The Feb 24 meeting was where a decision was made to drop several controversial issues from 1MDB's final audit report.
11.50am - Proceedings adjourn for a short break.
Retired NAD auditor very frustrated with February 2016 meeting
11.47am - Retired National Audit Officer Saadatul Nafisah Bashir Ahmad says she was very frustrated with the outcome of the Feb 24, 2016 meeting on 1MDB's final audit report.
She says this during examination-in-chief by DPP Gopal Sri Ram.
"I felt very frustrated. We worked very hard, we were given the opportunity to discuss the 1MDB (audit)," Saadatul Nafisah says.
She also says that she felt very frustrated as the NAD audit team, together with then auditor-general Ambrin Buang, had raised various other issues at the meeting which were statements of fact.
The Feb 24 meeting was where a decision was made to remove several controversial issues from 1MDB's final audit report.
Witness only realised voice recorder placed in her pencil case after meeting
11.45am - Former head of a special team that audited 1MDB in 2016, Saadatul Nafisah Bashir Ahmad, testifies that she did not know that a recorder had been placed in her pencil case before a meeting that discussed 1MDB's audit report was held at the office of then chief secretary to the government Ali Hamsa on Feb 24, 2016.
Saadatul Nafisah, who retired from the National Audit Department later that year, tells the court that she only knew about the recorder after the meeting ended when told by her staff Nor Salwani Muhammad.
'Meetings to amend NAD audit report never happened before in my career'
11.40am - Former National Audit Department officer Saadatul Nafisah Bashir Ahmad testifies that the department's original findings on 1MDB were supposed to have been tabled to the Parliamentary Select Committee in 2016 if the meeting on Feb 24 that year requesting for amendments didn't take place.
Saadatul, who was the head of a special team that was tasked with auditing 1MDB then, says this under examination-in-chief by DPP Gopal Sri Ram.
For the record, it had been previously established in court that the meeting held at the office of the then chief secretary to the government Ali Hamsa and attended by then auditor-general Ambrin Buang, then CEO of 1MDB Arul Kanda Kandasamy and Saadatul, among others, discussed the NAD's findings on 1MDB and decided for amendments to be made.
Sri Ram: (This was the document) ready to be handed to PAC?
Sri Ram showing Saadatul the original report marked as P81.
Saadatul Nafisah: Ready to be tabled to PAC, not handed.
The witness, who had served in the department since 1979 before retiring in 2016, says that such meetings to amend an audit report prepared by NAD had never happened before in her career.
Saadatul Nafisah completes reading from her witness statement
11.37am - Retired National Audit Department officer Saadatul Nafisah Bashir Ahmad wraps up reading from her witness statement.
The seventh prosecution witness is seen signing the document as DPP Rozaliana Zakaria conducts examination-in-chief.
Saadatul told to wait for Najib's greenlight before printing audit report
11.25pm - "Don't print the report until his greenlight."
Retired National Audit Department officer Saadatul Nafisah Bashir Ahmad testifies she was told this by then chief secretary to the government Ali Hamsa concerning the printing of the 1MDB final audit report in early 2016.
During examination-in-chief by DPP Rozaliana Zakaria, the seventh prosecution witness says that Ali Hamsa told her this on Feb 29, 2016, around 9.30am.
The 1MDB final audit report was printed in March that year.
Saadatul Nafisah says that she was told the above while she was handing a draft of the 1MDB audit report to Ali at his office.
"He (Ali) told me not to print the 1MDB final audit report until getting an order and agreement from Dato Sri Najib.
"As far as I remember, Tan Sri Ali Hamsa told me 'Don't print the report until his (Najib) greenlight'.
"He (Ali) said that it would have a political impact on the country. I later informed Tan Sri Ambrin (Buang, the then auditor-general) and he (Ambrin) took note about the matter," Saadatul Nafisah tells judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan.
11.10am - Seventh prosecution witness Saadatul Nafisah Bashir Ahmad who is a retired National Audit Department officer,\ continues to read out from her written Witness Statement during examination-in-chief by DPP Rozaliana Zakaria.
Mention of Jho Low to be removed from final audit report
10.29am - The issue of wanted businessperson Jho Low's attendance at a 1MDB board meeting was not raised during a crucial Feb 24, 2016 meeting, testifies retired National Audit Department (NAD) officer Saadatul Nafisah Saadatul Bashir Ahmad.
She tells the High Court that the matter was raised after the Feb 24, 2016, meeting when former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak's then principal private secretary Shukry Mohd Salleh sought for the issue be removed from the 1MDB final audit report.
The seventh witness says this during examination-in-chief by DPP Rozaliana Zakaria.
Rozaliana: In regards to the Low Taek Jho issue that was not discussed during the meeting, when did Shukry raise the request (to remove the issue from the report)?
Saadatul Nafisah: After the Feb 24, 2016, meeting. I do not remember exactly, maybe on Feb 25 or 26. Shukry had sought for the removal of the Low Taek Jho issue as it was a sensitive issue and could be manipulated by the opposition.
The meeting on Feb 24, 2016, was when a decision was made to remove several controversially issues from the 1MDB final audit report.
Ex-NAD officer ordered to send audit report's final draft to Najib's secretary
10.15am - The court hears from former National Audit Department officer Saadatul Nafisah Bashir Ahmad that in February 2016, she sent a copy of the 1MDB audit report's final draft to Shukry Mohd Salleh's house in Putrajaya after being ordered to do so by then auditor-general Ambrin Buang.
At the time, Shukry was former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak's principal private secretary.
"And thus, on Feb 20, 2016, I ordered Suraya Adnan, who was in charge of keeping the audit report's soft copy, to print out the final draft.
"The printed copy was then put inside an envelope sealed as 'Rahsia' (secret) by her.
"Tan Sri Ambrin then gave me Tan Sri Shukry's number, and I sent a Whatsapp message to Shukry where I told him that I received an order to hand him the final draft of the report.
"He (Shukry) then ordered me to send it to his house, and he gave me the address of his house in Precinct 10, Putrajaya.
"About 10am the same day, I went to the house and handed him the copy at the gate of his house," Saadatul Nafisah testifies.
Former National Audit Department officer Saadatul Nafisah takes the stand
9.46am - Retired National Audit Department (NAD) officer Saadatul Nafisah Bashir Ahmad (below) takes the witness stand to testify for the prosecution as the seventh witness.
Previously, the court heard that NAD officer Nor Salwani Muhammad had slipped a voice recorder into Saadatul Nafisah's pencil case during a crucial meeting in Feb 24, 2016.
During that meeting, a decision was allegedly made to remove controversial parts of the 1MDB final audit report.
Najib, Arul Kanda enter the dock as proceedings begin
9.44am - Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak and former 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy enter the dock as proceedings begin.
9.34am - Accused former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak enters the Kuala Lumpur High Court and takes a seat at the front row of the public gallery.
Also seen waiting for proceedings to begin are his lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah and other members of the defence team.
9.25am - Former 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy is seen conferring with his lead defence counsel N Sivananthan while waiting for proceedings to begin.
Also seen in the Kuala Lumpur High Court is lead DPP Gopal Sri Ram.
After more than a month since the last proceedings in November last year, the seventh day of the trial of Najib Abdul Razak and Arul Kanda Kandasamy’s 1MDB final audit report tampering case resumes today.
With the matter still in the prosecution’s stage of trial, it is understood that the respective defence teams of former premier Najib and former 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda (photo) today will continue with their cross-examination of witnesses who so far have testified for the prosecution.
Up to the last proceedings on Nov 28 last year, among the witnesses who have testified for the prosecution were former auditor-general Ambrin Buang, former chief secretary to the government Ali Hamsa, and National Audit Department officer Nor Salwani Muhammad.
During the previous proceedings (Nov 28), sixth prosecution witness Ambrin was cross-examined by Najib’s lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.
While under the lawyer’s questioning, Ambrin among others testified that he was put under pressure to agree to amendments to the 1MDB final audit report.
He had told the Kuala Lumpur High Court this in relation to a meeting he attended on Feb 24, 2016, which led to the removal of four controversial issues from the 1MDB final audit report.
Earlier during examination-in-chief by the prosecution on that same day of trial (Nov 28), Ambrin among others testified that during the Feb 24, 2016 meeting, Ali had informed the attendees that contents of the 1MDB audit report could tarnish the name of Najib.
Today’s proceedings before judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan is expected to resume around 9am this morning.
[More to follow] - Mkini
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