KUALA LUMPUR (June 21): Former Treasury secretary general Tan Sri Dr Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah has verified former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s voice in four audio recordings during the 1Malaysia Development Bhd-Tanore (1MDB-Tanore) trial at the High Court here on Wednesday (June 21).
Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib had asked the 42nd prosecution witness in the trial to verify Najib's voice in the phone call recordings, which were played in court before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah.
After listening to the first three recordings, Irwan said that while he was not present when the conversation took place, one voice "sounds like" Najib and the other sounded like a Middle-Easterner, but he was not sure who it was.
Likewise for the fourth recording, Irwan said he was not present during the conversation, but one of the voices sounded like Najib, while the other was like the ex-PM's former aide Datuk Amhari Efendi Nazaruddin.
During proceedings earlier, Sequerah had allowed the admission of the recordings as evidence, making the decision on an application which was argued last year.
The four recordings were part of multiple audio clips that were made public by former Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Latheefa Koya in January 2020.
They purportedly feature Najib and other 1MDB-linked individuals.
The prosecution argued last year that the recordings were crucial to supporting their rebuttal of Najib's claim that the money was donated by Saudi Arabian royalty.
They said the recordings should be admissible under Section 41(A) of the MACC Act and that it is a "special provision" which takes precedence over Section 65 of the Evidence Act which deals with documentary evidence.
However, Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah also argued last year that admitting the recordings would impinge on Najib's right to a fair trial.
Shafee said the prosecution's reliance on Section 41A of the MACC Act for the admission of the audio was too "simplistic" and "demolishes all the safeguards" in the Evidence Act 1950, thus impacting Najib's right to a fair trial.
In the 1MDB-Tanore trial, Najib — who is currently serving his 12-year jail sentence after having been convicted for graft involving 1MDB's former subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd — is facing four charges of abuse of power for enriching himself with RM2.3 billion of 1MDB funds said to have been siphoned off through Tanore Finance Corp, and 21 counts of money laundering of the same amount. He could face a fine and up to 20 years' imprisonment if convicted.
The trial is set to continue on July 7.
The Edge is covering the trial live here.
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