Stop the irrelevant questions, Najib’s lawyers told

 

Najib Razak is charged with 25 counts of money laundering and abuse of power over alleged 1MDB funds amounting to RM2.28 billion deposited in his AmBank accounts. (Bernama pic)

KUALA LUMPUR: The prosecution in Najib Razak’s 1MDB trial today criticised his defence team for posing irrelevant questions to the fund’s former non-executive director Ismee Ismail, who is the 13th prosecution witness.

Lead prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram told the High Court that the questions by Najib’s counsel Hariharan Tara Singh were not relevant and asked them to do better to save on court time.

“I don’t see the relevance. I have been very patient. If it’s going to be suggested, with all the documents put to him, there must be some relevance to the questions.

“So, I will be very grateful if my learned friend can explain to us and His Lordship the relevance of questions which have already been put to Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi (former 1MDB CEO),” Sri Ram said.

In the cross-examination, Hariharan had asked Ismee about events that involved Shahrol and former 1MDB executive director Casey Tang.

The lawyer said the relevance of the questions was to show that Shahrol and Tang were the principal persons who represented the 1MDB management in that particular transaction and they were the ones who disobeyed the board of directors’ decision.

“The defence wishes to establish that Shahrol and Tang acted against the board’s mandate. All we wanted to show is how these two persons manipulated the scheme and we were asking about the 1MDB board’s stand on it,” he added.

Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah then pointed out that this would be fine if Ismee was asked about what he knew.

“If he knows or if he has personal knowledge of whatever you ask him, that is good. But most of the things you put to him, he was not aware of it,” the judge said.

The judge said the answer was already in the documents and the defence could change the questions by putting their suggestions in a straightforward manner for Ismee to agree or disagree instead of repeating contents already stated in the documents.

“I don’t see any end in sight for the witness in the foreseeable future if it continues like this. Can we bring matters to a conclusion?” the judge asked.

Sequerah said the line of questioning seemed to be going around in circles and the defence should just go for the jugular.

“Just confront him (Ismee) with what you want to put as your case and leave the rest for your submission,” the judge said.

However, Najib’s lead counsel Shafee Abdullah said that if the court finds that the 1MDB trial was going in circles, it would be because of how Shahrol and others put it that way to confuse everyone.

“This is a very complicated case. There are many documents and many transactions that were involved in this case. It is not an open and shut case,” he said.

Najib, 68, is charged with 25 counts of money laundering and abuse of power over alleged 1MDB funds amounting to RM2.28 billion deposited in his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.

The hearing continues tomorrow. - FMT