1MDB TRIAL | Najib Abdul Razak wants the government to make Netflix take down the 1MDB-linked documentary “Man on the Run”.
The former prime minister claimed the show was “contemptuous and sub judice” to the ongoing RM2.27 billion 1MDB corruption trial against him.
The accused’s lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah also informed the Kuala Lumpur High Court this morning that Najib would be filing a contempt of court application and defamation suit.
This is against former attorney-general (AG) Tommy Thomas and Sarawak Report founder Clare Rewcastle-Brown, whose interviews appeared in the documentary.
“The programme was extremely sub judice and contemptuous,” Shafee said in airing Najib’s complaint before judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah.
The lawyer claimed that during the nearly two-hour programme, Thomas and Rewcastle-Brown made statements that implied Najib’s involvement in the 1MDB case, which is the subject matter of the trial involving four abuse of power charges and 21 money laundering counts against Najib.
Shafee alleged Rewcastle-Brown in the documentary made claims linking Najib to the 2015 murder of deputy public prosecutor Anthony Kevin Morais.
"(The documentary) made it sound like my client is a serial murderer," the lawyer said, pointing out that Thomas is already being sued in a separate defamation action over the allegation that Najib was involved in the 2006 murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu.
After citing a few other allegedly sub-judicial statements from other interviewees in the documentary, the lawyer told the court he needed to stop there as mentioning every alleged contemptuous statement would take the whole day.
Shafee then urged deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib - who is part of the 1MDB prosecution team - to watch the documentary and confer with the AG, the communications, digital, and home ministries for “this programme be taken off the air on Netflix, which they can do”.
“The AG is the fountain of justice and the person who guards the integrity of court proceedings, and he is bound by duty to take action,” Shafee said as Najib looked on from the dock.
Akram informed Sequerah that he needed to watch the documentary first and then confer with the AG for the next course of action.
Shafee remarked that if Akram were to watch the documentary, “he would be shocked”.
It should be noted that the documentary - which began shooting in early 2022 - contained an interview with Najib, who denied being involved in any wrongdoing in 1MDB.
Sequerah directed for the trial proceedings to continue with the ongoing testimony of MACC investigating officer Nur Aida Arifin.
Najib is on trial over four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.27 billion from 1MDB, a sovereign wealth fund fully owned by the Ministry 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, Najib is purported to have committed the offences at the same bank between March 22, 2013, and Aug 30, 2013.
The documentary casts the spotlight on the 1MDB scandal and the role played by fugitive businessperson Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) over the movement of funds out of the sovereign wealth fund.
‘Man on the Run’
The documentary was screened at selected cinemas in Malaysia from Oct 19, 2023, and received good reviews.
Directed and co-produced by Cassius Michael Kim of ‘The Wonder List’ fame, it was released globally this month.
Kim gained access to key individuals in the saga, giving viewers first-person accounts and unveiling the repercussions of the financial scandal.
Journalist Rewcastle-Brown, The Edge CEO Ho Kay Tat, former Wall Street Journal reporter Bradley Hope, whistleblower Xavier Justo, as well as politicians such as Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, former MP Tony Pua, and former AG Thomas were among those who offered their insights into the scandal.
Kim and his crew also managed to interview Najib in Kuala Lumpur on the first day of Ramadan in 2022 to get his side of the story.
Part of witness' statement expunged
During today’s proceedings, Sequerah allowed Shafee's bid for part of Nur Aida's witness statement to be expunged.
The testimony was over the witness' previous oral evidence that two Petrosaudi International (PSI) officers met with Najib as well as Low on a yacht for an alleged government-to-government (G-to-G)meeting in 2009.
With the expungement, her testimony only reads the meeting took place, with the G-to-G allegation removed.
Shafee previously mounted numerous objections against Nur Aida's witness statement, with the lawyer claiming hearsay and parts of it amounting to the MACC officer's opinion.
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