PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has set a new date to hear an application by former prime minister Najib Razak to obtain documents concerning companies controlled by Zeti Akhtar Aziz’s family and fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho (Jho Low).
Deputy public prosecutor Mustafa P Kunyalam said the hearing would be held on Aug 3. It was supposed to have been heard on June 23 but was vacated as Najib’s lead counsel Shafee Abdullah was unwell.
The appeal is being made against a High Court decision in July last year dismissing Najib’s application to obtain the documents for use in his trial on charges relating to 1MDB.
The High Court judge hearing the trial, Collin Lawrence Sequerah, said the application was premature: he did not see how the bank documents, relating to funds received by Zeti’s family, were relevant to the defence case.
The documents were sought by Najib to question Zeti’s credibility as the then Bank Negara Malaysia governor. Sequerah said the application “amounted to a collateral attack”, and ruled that the defence could confront Zeti when she was called to testify later.
The court had also turned down Najib’s other application to obtain the mobile phone records of former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner. The judge said the prosecution had made it clear it did not have the documents in its possession.
Najib is standing trial on 25 charges for abuse of power and money laundering involving 1MDB funds amounting to RM2.28 billion deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014. - FMT
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