Tuesday, August 29, 2023

1MDB trial | Jasmine Loo may be in last batch of witnesses, court told

 


1MDB TRIAL | Recently arrested former fugitive Jasmine Loo may be on the list of the last three or four witnesses in the RM2.28 billion 1MDB corruption case against former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib indicated this to trial judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah this afternoon.

The trial judge was asking the prosecution how many more witnesses it intends to call in the event that the present 46th witness - former Bank Negara governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz - wraps up her testimony in the future.

Akram then said there may be three or four more witnesses, among them the central bank’s analyst Adam Ariff Mohd Roslan, federal police head of Special Investigation Division of the Anti-Money-Laundering Team superintendent Foo Wei Min, Loo, and MACC superintendent Nur Aida Ariffin.

However, he told the Kuala Lumpur High Court that the prosecution has yet to decide whether it would actually call Loo to testify against Najib.

Last month, Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail announced that 1MDB-linked Loo (above) was arrested following her surrender to the Malaysian authorities after many years on the run.

Muhammad Shafee Abdullah

Previously, Sequerah dismissed Najib’s bid for the judge to withdraw from the case due to being partners with Loo in a law firm years ago.

Today, the trial judge’s question to the prosecution was due to Najib’s lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah wanting to know whether the prosecutors would be calling Ambank’s former managing director Ashok Ramamurthy to testify against the former premier.

The trial before Sequerah will resume tomorrow.

Former finance minister Najib is facing four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.28 billion from 1MDB, a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund fully owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MOF Inc).

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

On the 21 money laundering counts, the accused is purported to have committed the offences at the same bank between March 22, 2013, and Aug 30, 2013. - Mkini

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