1MDB: Najib's lawyers need a week to cross-examine his former banker

 

1MDB TRIAL | Najib Abdul Razak’s lawyers are set to cross-examine the former prime minister’s banker Joanna Yu for a week.

Lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah informed the Kuala Lumpur High Court this afternoon of the estimated number of days needed to question the 41st prosecution witness in Najib's RM2.28 billion 1MDB corruption trial.

“It will take about a week (to cross-examine Yu),” the lawyer told trial judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah as the accused looked on from the dock.

Yu (above), who used to be a relationship manager with AmBank where Najib’s bank accounts linked to the graft case were located, is set to take the witness stand tomorrow afternoon.

The banker was one of the key prosecution witnesses during Najib’s previous RM42 million SRC International corruption trial.

During the SRC trial, Najib’s lawyers cross-examined her for several weeks and at one point, Yu reportedly cried while on the witness stand.

The accused is serving a 12-year jail sentence over the SRC case, with him being brought to court by Kajang Prison authorities to attend his various ongoing criminal trials, which include the 1MDB case.

In relation to the ongoing 1MDB trial against Najib, Yu testified among others that she was introduced to 1MDB-linked fugitive businessperson Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) two years before the sovereign wealth fund’s predecessor (Terengganu Investment Authority or TIA) was set up in 2009.

She also testified that she never met the accused directly over his bank account and that Low wanted several so-called Arab letters to be kept secret.

The alleged Arab letters refer to several documents which Najib purportedly relied on to prove a contention that the Middle Eastern kingdom’s royalty promised him a donation.

Ex-PM Najib Abdul Razak

The prosecution was led by deputy public prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram.

Audio recording

Earlier today, the prosecution and defence team were orally submitting on whether an audio recording - of an alleged conversation between Najib and a United Arab Emirate (UAE) royalty - should be allowed to be tendered in court.

The prosecution seeks to admit the audio recording to rebut Najib's Arab donation claims behind his defence against the graft charges.

In relation to the trial before Sequerah, Najib is facing four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.28 billion from 1MDB.

For the four abuse of power charges, the former Pekan MP was alleged to have committed the offences at AmIslamic Bank Berhad’s Jalan Raja Chulan branch in Bukit Ceylon, Kuala Lumpur, between Feb 24, 2011, and Dec 19, 2014.

On the 21 money laundering counts, Najib, who was also a former finance minister, was purported to have committed the offences at the same bank between March 22, 2013, and Aug 30, 2013.

The prosecution contended that the wrongdoing at 1MDB was carried out by Low and several others with Najib’s blessing.

However, the accused’s defence team claimed that Najib had no knowledge of the crime perpetrated at 1MDB and that Low as well as other members of the fund’s management had masterminded the embezzlement.

Initially a subsidiary of 1MDB, SRC later became fully owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MOF Inc). MOF Inc is also the full owner of 1MDB.

Najib also used to be adviser emeritus to SRC as well as chairperson of 1MDB’s board of advisers. - Mkini