Najib Razak's senior counsel argued that Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi's claim was hearsay unless he heard it directly from the former prime minister.
The senior counsel raised the objection after Shahrol, 56, read out paragraph 20.4 of his 168-page witness statement during proceedings in 1MDB’s US$5.64 billion civil suit against Najib and several others at the High Court here.
Shafee argued that Shahrol’s allegation that Low was Najib’s proxy amounted to hearsay.
“I’m objecting to the entire paragraph 20.4 and also all of his oral testimony that Jho Low was Najib Razak’s proxy.
“Unless he hears this from Najib Razak, but from his oral statement, he gave the impression that Jho Low had claimed as such and therefore it is hearsay,” he said.
Judicial commissioner Redzuan Idrus ruled that the court would disregard the phrase containing the allegation in paragraph 20.4.
1MDB counsel Nathalie Ker told the court that the plaintiffs would file written submissions next week to address Shafee’s objection to Shahrol’s oral testimony concerning the proxy allegation.
1MDB withdraws suit against former CFO
Earlier, 1MDB informed the court that it would discontinue its suit against former chief financial officer Radhi Mohamad, 56, leaving six defendants in the proceedings, including Najib.
Counsel Lee Shih said the plaintiffs and Radhi had agreed to settle the suit by consent.
He said the consent order would be recorded in court today, under which the suit against Radhi would be discontinued with no further action against him.
“I can confirm that the plaintiffs and the sixth defendant would like to record a consent judgment or consent order today. Under the consent order, the suit against Radhi would be discontinued with no liberty to file afresh and no order as to costs,” he said.
Radhi’s counsel M Reza Hassan subsequently confirmed that both parties had agreed to the consent terms and thanked the plaintiffs for their cooperation in resolving the matter.
Redzuan then ordered that Radhi, the sixth defendant, be removed as a co-defendant from the proceedings.
1MDB is seeking to recover about US$5.64 billion from Najib and several other individuals, alleging that the funds were misappropriated.
The sovereign wealth fund and its four subsidiaries – 1MDB Energy Holdings Ltd, 1MDB Energy Ltd, 1MDB Energy (Langat) Ltd, and Global Diversified Investment Company Ltd – filed the suit on May 7, 2021.
Other than Najib, the defendants include former 1MDB CEO Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, former executive director of business development Casey Tang, and former deputy chief financial officer Terence Geh.
The remaining defendants are former chief investment officer Vincent Beng and former director of investments Kelvin Tan.
The hearing continues on Aug 17. - FMT
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.