High Court rejects Najib-Irwan plea for discharge in IPIC case

 

Najib Razak and Irwan Serigar Abdullah are jointly charged with misappropriating RM6.6 billion in public funds involving payments to International Petroleum Investment Company.

KUALA LUMPUR: 

The High Court here has rejected a fresh bid by Najib Razak and Irwan Serigar Abdullah for a discharge not amounting to acquittal (DNAA) in their criminal breach of trust (CBT) case involving alleged payments of RM6.6 billion to International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC).

The defence’s DNAA request is rejected. Please be ready (for trial) on Nov 14,

 Justice Jamil Hussin said.

The judge also directed that the prosecution complete the document declassification process within a period of three months.

Defence lawyer Farhan Shafee, representing Najib, and Irwan’s counsel, K Kumaraendran, had sought the DNAA on grounds that the prosecution had yet to serve on them the entire set of documents intended for use at trial.

Kumaraendran said the defence teams were previously notified that the prosecution intended to serve on them 100 sets of documents upon their declassification.

The deputy public prosecutors can charge them (Najib and Irwan) again when they (the documents) are ready,

 he said.

However, deputy public prosecutor Saifuddin Hashim Musaimi objected, saying the prosecution was ready to proceed with the trial.

He said the prosecution was still in the process of securing the declassification by various ministries, including the economy and energy transition and water transformation ministries.

Kumaraendran then told the court that the defence would be unable to prepare for trial without the complete delivery of documents.

This is the duo’s second attempt at securing the discharge. A previous request was rejected in March 2022.

In 2018, former prime minister Najib and ex-treasury secretary-general Irwan were jointly charged with six counts of misappropriating public funds intended for payment to IPIC, an Abu Dhabi-owned corporation. - FMT