Judge allows Najib to call expert witness to examine signatures

SRC TRIAL | Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak can call for an expert witness to examine the authenticity of his signatures on SRC International-related documents, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur ruled this morning.

Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali (photo, above) delivered the decision at the start of today's proceeding, finding that Najib, in defending himself in the criminal trial against him, is entitled to introduce relevant evidence of his choice.

He said that even if Najib's dispute against the authenticity of his signatures was based on an afterthought, it was not a valid reason to bar him from leading evidence in his defence.

"Even if the basis for this application is an afterthought or a recent invention by the accused, this is not a valid reason to bar the accused from leading evidence in his defence.

“Under the law, an accused in his defence is entitled to procure and lead any relevant evidence of his choice. Furthermore, it is a settled law that even if a defence is not put to the prosecution witnesses, the court is still bound to consider the defence, however weak.

"Nevertheless, the weight to be given to this expert evidence, should it be tendered, including on whether the credibility of the defence of the accused is adversely affected by an afterthought, is for this court to determine at the end of the case.

“The evidentiary value of the intended evidence is an issue to be determined at the end of the case," Justice Nazlan said.

He also ruled that the prosecution is allowed to call a rebuttal witness as provided under Section 425 of the Criminal Procedure Code, if they wished to do so.

The judge then ordered the defence to arrange for the expert to examine the documents without interfering with the trial proceedings. This is to be done within two days, before Feb 3.

"To ensure the examination of the exhibits does not interfere with the proceedings of this case, the defence must arrange for the examination by the expert to take place next week, for a period of not more than two days, before the trial continues, after tomorrow, on February 3.

"The venue will be the court premises, to be further notified by the Deputy Registrar, and with representatives of the prosecution, defence and the court to be in attendance," Justice Nazlan said.

The decision came after the court deliberated on lengthy submissions from both the defence and prosecution, which took the entire span of Monday’s and half of yesterday’s trial sessions.

Najib (above) is disputing the authenticity of his signatures on 13 SRC documents that had been tendered in court, including SRC shareholder minutes that instructed the company's board of directors.

During prosecution stage in the trial, several witnesses testified in court that SRC had acted on these documents signed by Najib, including the sending out of most of its RM4 billion funds overseas.

However, the prosecution, in its objection, called Najib's dispute of his signatures as a mere afterthought.

DPP V Sithambaram had also accused the defence of doing a trial by ambush, saying that Najib's lawyers could have raised the dispute during prosecution stage of the trial but did not do so.

The defence, in their submission for the application, accused the prosecution of failing to call an expert witness to examine the signatures despite having taken samples of Najib's signatures.

Defence lawyer Harvinderjit Singh said it was the prosecution's burden to prove the authenticity of the signatures.

Lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah also told the court that a court of law should consider even the slightest defence by an accused, including an afterthought. - Mkini