KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court today put off the ongoing hearing of Najib Razak’s 1MDB trial after being told the former prime minister’s lawyer, Shafee Abdullah, is on medical leave until Oct 9.
Lawyer Alaistair Brandah Norman said Shafee is currently down with a fever and also suffering from a severe sore throat.
He added that Shafee is also scheduled to argue former Repco Holdings Bhd chairman Low Thiam Hock’s market manipulation appeal which is fixed before another High Court judge next Tuesday.
Najib’s 1MDB trial is set to resume from Tuesday to Thursday (Oct 11 to Oct 13).
“I propose that we hold a case management on Tuesday afternoon to update the court on the (market manipulation) case,” Alaistair said.
The lawyer said the defence team is also required to appear before justice Ahmad Kamal Md Shahid on Wednesday in Najib’s bid to quash the prisons department’s refusal to let him attend proceedings at the Dewan Rakyat.
Deputy public prosecutor Mustafa P Kunyalam said the prosecution looks forward to Shafee’s recovery.
“We want him back in full force (to complete his) cross-examination,” he added.
Mustafa also asked for the trial to proceed next week so that Shafee can complete his cross-examination of former AmBank managing director, Cheah Tek Kuang, and its private banking capital market desk head, Yap Wai Keat.
“We need them to complete their testimony before we can call Joanna Yu and Kok Tuck Cheong,” he said.
Yu is the bank’s former relationship manager, while Kok is its former managing director for wholesale banking.
Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah said the trial has taken far too long.
He told Mustafa to ensure that the witnesses attend court on Tuesday.
“We have a commitment to finish this trial. We cannot be waiting for other cases (before other courts),” Sequerah said.
Najib is standing trial on 25 charges of abuse of power and money laundering over alleged 1MDB funds amounting to RM2.28 billion deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014. - FMT
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.