The investigating officer (IO) behind the 1MDB audit report case against former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak is suffering from intestinal bleeding and is unable to attend the trial today.
As a result, this morning’s scheduled hearing of the case against the former prime minister has been postponed to Aug 12.
During proceedings before trial judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan, deputy public prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram (above) said IO Haniff Lami is on two-day medical leave.
“I have some difficulty as the next witness, the last witness, IO Haniff, has been taken ill. He’s suffering from intestinal bleeding.
“At the last minute yesterday, I attempted to make arrangements to have his (Haniff) evidence be taken via Zoom. Unfortunately, we did not have sufficient time to alert the court to make arrangements.
“Otherwise, we would have proceeded with his evidence today. I apologise for that because the communication came late to us yesterday.
“Yesterday, close to 7pm, he was certified by a doctor as being unable to come (to court today),” the prosecutor said.
Star witness
Zaini then rescheduled today’s proceedings to Aug 12.
On that day next month, Najib’s defence team are expected to resume their cross-examination of former 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy.
Previously, the court allowed the prosecution’s application to turn co-accused Arul Kanda into a star witness against Najib.
Najib is charged with using his position to order amendments to 1MDB’s final audit report before it was presented to the PAC to prevent any action against him.
Arul Kanda was charged with abetting the then premier in making the amendments.
The charges are framed under Section 23 (1) of the MACC Act 2009, which specifies a jail term of up to 20 years and a fine of no less than five times the amount of gratification, or RM10,000, whichever is higher.
The prosecution contended that following a meeting on Feb 24, 2016, a decision was made to remove or alter certain portions of the 1MDB audit report, including dropping the presence of wanted fugitive Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) at the fund’s board meetings.
Another issue that was allegedly dropped from the audit report was the two conflicting 2014 financial statements of the sovereign wealth fund.
Besides the then chief secretary to the government Ali Hamsa and Arul Kanda, others who were present at the meeting were former auditor-general Ambrin Buang, former National Audit Department officer Saadatul Nafisah Bashir Ahmad, Najib’s former principal private secretary Shukry Salleh, and then Attorney-General’s Chambers representative Dzulkifli Ahmad. - Mkini
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