The prosecution has gone to the Court of Appeal to overturn the acquittal of former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak and former 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy of abuse of power involving the audit of the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.
A source close to prosecutors confirmed that the notice of appeal was filed earlier today against the Kuala Lumpur High Court’s verdict on March 3.
On that date, trial judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan discharged and acquitted former finance minister Najib and Arul Kanda, following the court ruling that the prosecution had failed to prove a prima facie (answerable) case against the duo.
Najib was charged with using his position as then-prime minister to order amendments to 1MDB’s final audit report before it was presented to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in 2016 to prevent any action against him.
Arul Kanda was charged with abetting Najib in making the amendments.
Najib is currently serving a 12-year jail sentence in a separate RM42 million SRC International corruption case.
On Sept 7 last year, the prosecution rested its case against the duo after calling 16 witnesses, including Arul Kanda, to testify in the trial that spanned 43 days.
Other witnesses
Since the trial began on Nov 18, 2019, others who took the witness stand for the prosecution were former chief secretary to the government Ali Hamsa, former auditors-general Ambrin Buang and Madinah Mohamad, National Audit Department officer Nor Salwani Muhammad, and Najib’s former principal private secretary Shukry Mohd Salleh.
Salwani previously testified that she saved a copy of the original 1MDB audit report from being destroyed before the alleged modifications took effect on the report that was to be tabled before the PAC in 2016.
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 fugitive businessperson and key figure Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) at the board meetings of 1MDB.
Another issue that was allegedly dropped from the audit report was two conflicting 2014 financial statements of the sovereign wealth fund.
Besides Arul Kanda and Ali, others who were present at the meeting were Ambrin, former National Audit Department officer Saadatul Nafisah Bashir Ahmad, Shukry, and then Attorney-General’s Chambers representative Dzulkifli Ahmad.
Previously a subsidiary of 1MDB, SRC International later became wholly owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MOF Inc), which also wholly owned the sovereign wealth fund.
Najib used to be adviser emeritus to SRC International and chairperson of 1MDB’s board of advisers as well.
After having exhausted the appeals process at the Court of Appeal and Federal Court, Najib has resorted to a review application to nullify the guilty verdict and sentencing in the RM42 million SRC International case, with the apex court set to deliver its decision on the bid by March 31.
The former Pekan MP also has three other pending criminal court cases, namely the RM2.28 billion 1MDB corruption trial, a separate SRC International money laundering case involving RM27 million, and an RM6.6 billion International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) criminal breach of trust case.
Former Treasury secretary-general Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah is a co-accused in the IPIC case. - Mkini
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