KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 6): The 1MDB-Tanore trial on Thursday has been vacated after the prosecution failed to find another available witness to testify when its current witness, the former chief financial officer of the strategic investment fund, fell sick.

And to avoid any recurrence, the prosecution will prepare four witnesses when the trial resumes on Jan 26 and 27.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Ahmad Akram Gharib informed the High Court Judge Justice Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah that the prosecution were unable to find an available witness to bring to the stand on Thursday, after Azmi Tahir came down with a fever and was given a medical leave certificate after being examined at a clinic.

Akram told the court that the prosecution had failed to meet the judge’s directive, issued earlier in the morning, of getting another witness to testify in place of Azmi by 2.30pm.

“Prosecution has tried to call witnesses to come to court and testify this afternoon. However, I am sorry, I apologise for this, we cannot get any of them to come on a very short notice of a few hours because most of them have started working already and have their own matters to attend to, which cannot be postponed at the very last minute.

“Therefore, I apply for the trial to be vacated for today (Thursday),” he reported to Justice Sequerah in the afternoon.

Left with no alternatives, Justice Sequerah vacated Thursday’s proceedings. “Thanks for at least making the effort, I suppose we have no choice but to vacate today’s (Thursday) proceedings," the judge said.

Akram also assured the judge that what occured on Thursday’s proceedings would not recur as the prosecution will have three other witnesses on standby on the resumption of trial on Jan 26 and 27, besides Azmi.

The three are: former 1MDB director Tan Sri Ismee Ismail, ex-prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s former special officer Datuk Wan Ahmad Shihab Wan Ismail, and former 1MDB chairman Tan Sri Mohd Bakke Salleh.

“If anything happens like [today] we will have backup [witnesses]," Azkram said.

In the 1MDB-Tanore trial, Najib, who is Pekan member of Parliament, is facing 21 counts of money laundering and four charges of abuse of power over alleged misappropriation of billions of ringgit of 1MDB funds.

Azmi, the prosecution's 12th witness, had on Wednesday complained of having a headache during cross-examination by Najib's counsel Datuk Hariharan Tara Singh and asked the judge to end the hearing slightly before 4.30pm.

On resumption of trial Thursday, the prosecution told Justice Sequerah it had contacted five other witnesses to testify instead of Azmi after the latter was given an MC.

“Datuk Johan Idris (KPMG managing partner) is in London, coming back on Jan 22 and is only available on the 29th.

“Datuk Wan Ahmad Shihab Wan Ismail (Najib’s former special officer) is unavailable because, according to him, he has been having diarrhoea for the past three days. [Former 1MDB director] Tan Sri Ismee Ismail just came back from umrah and is under quarantine,” Akram said.

Akram said he also contacted two 1MDB company secretaries who were not available as one of them was getting a Covid-19 booster shot while the other had two meetings to attend to.

The two company secretaries are Lim Poh Seng and Goh Gaik Kim.

The Edge is covering the trial live here.

Users of The Edge Markets app may tap here to access the live report.

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1MDB-Tanore trial: Former CFO on MC; court directs prosecution to find another witness