Najib Abdul Razak raised his pending bid in a US court in an attempt to postpone his ongoing RM2.28 billion 1MDB corruption trial in Malaysia.
However, the Kuala Lumpur High Court rejected the postponement application by the former prime minister’s defence team during open court proceedings today.
Lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah had raised the matter of the discovery application pending at a US federal court in Manhattan, where the accused is seeking documents and testimony from Goldman Sachs Group Inc to help in his defence in the present RM2.28 billion 1MDB corruption case.
In a filing at the US court on Nov 17 last year, Najib requested a court order to serve subpoenas on Goldman Sachs and its former South-east Asia chairperson, Tim Leissner.
Previously, Leissner had pleaded guilty in a federal court in Brooklyn, New York, to bribing officials in Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates to secure bond deals for the bank.
During Najib's 1MDB corruption trial this morning, Shafee said the defence team sought a postponement of the trial (fixed for today until Thursday this week) as the outcome of the US court bid could have a major impact on the present trial.
Shafee contended this was because Leisner’s confession of bribery involving Malaysian officials would affect the defence’s cross-examination of witnesses in the Najib's trial.
In previous proceedings, prosecution witnesses comprising former 1MDB CEOs Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi and Mohd Hazem Abdul Rahman testified that they followed instructions from businessperson Low Taek Jho regarding investments and other management aspects of 1MDB.
“This (legal bid in the US court) is extremely relevant because I have asked Shahrol on areas pertaining to why he behaved that way and simply followed Jho Low.
“There was also the shocking revelation by Hazem that he must follow (Low’s directions).
“This has bearing (on the issue of) whether payment was received, which is the subject matter of the disclosure in the Tim Leisner and Goldman Sachs case in the United States (court).
“The disclosure makes it relevant for us to pursue our cross-examination of these witnesses (Hazem among others) and to show they lack credibility.
“We will also show they are, in fact, (alleged) instruments of Jho Low just like Tim Leisner and Goldman Sachs, working in tandem to penetrate and corrupt 1MDB,” Shafee claimed.
The lawyer said that Low, through Goldman Sachs, had penetrated through to not only certain members of 1MDB but also certain members of both the previous Pakatan Harapan administration as well as the current Perikatan Nasional government in Malaysia.
Shafee added that the US government has also applied to stay Najib’s discovery application involving Goldman Sachs at the US court.
However, judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah did not allow the defence’s application to postpone Najibs' current RM2.28 billion 1MDB corruption trial.
The judge pointed out that the court will allow every opportunity for the defence to recall any prosecution witness for further cross-examination based on any material gleaned from the legal bid in the US Court.
“We have only these three days (this week).
“I do sympathise with your situation but we have to proceed (with the 1MDB corruption trial),” the judge said.
Defence counsel Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohammed then resumed cross-examination of 10th prosecution witness, Hazem.
Najib is on trial for four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.28 billion of 1MDB's funds.
Aside from being the former prime minister, the accused was also finance minister and chairperson of the board of advisors of 1MDB at the time.
1MDB is fully owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MOF Inc). - Mkini
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