KUALA LUMPUR (June 4): Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's fourth criminal trial has been postponed to June 19, to give the parties more time to collate all documents necessary to mount a defence.
The trial where Najib is accused along with former Treasury secretary general Tan Sri Dr Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah on six counts of criminal breach of trust (CBT) — over more than RM6.6 billion of government funds to International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) — was supposed to start on Tuesday, after several postponements.
However, at the onset of the proceedings before High Court judge Datuk Muhammad Jamil Hussin on Tuesday, Irwan's lead defence counsel Datuk K Kumaraendran informed the court that there were over 100 missing documents. These documents, he said, are pivotal for the accused to come up with a defence and inform the prosecution of the defence's stance.
"We were served with 48 witness statements...upon checking the statements, we found to date [that there are] over 100 missing documents. These are very important documents, which were never served on us at all," the senior lawyer told the court.
Among the documents were memos from the Ministry of Finance to Minister of Finance Inc (MOF Inc), Cabinet meeting memos, and letters and emails referred to in the witness statements.
Kumaraendran also informed the court that his client had amended his statement to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, but the amended statement was not given to the defence.
The defence lawyer also stressed that they were not prepared to submit a defence to the prosecution, without all these documents.
In this trial, Najib is represented by senior lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, who has represented Najib in his other criminal trials, including the 1Malaysia Development Bhd-Tanore (1MDB-Tanore) case, which saw the prosecution wrap up its case last Friday, after six years.
On Tuesday, Shafee told the court that having looked through the 48 witness statements, he said that there were some documents that even he was not familiar with, as this case deals with a different facet of the 1MDB saga.
He added that as his team was busy preparing for the 1MDB submissions, his attention was focused on that case.
Judge grants two-week adjournment, but says parties should have sorted this out way before Tuesday
Deputy public prosecutor Muhammad Saifuddin Hashim Musaimi — who is the deputy prosecution head II of the Attorney General's Chambers — informed the court that the prosecution had passed a myriad of documents in four stages since the duo was charged in 2018.
"[However], there are many documents, and to narrow them down to which will be used by the parties, we will have to relook at it. For the case to proceed smoothly, and to be fair to all parties, we have no objection to the adjournment," he told the court.
Judge Jamil granted the adjournment, but warned the parties that they should have participated in a pre-trial conference, as per the law, to iron out all such issues. This, he added, would have saved everyone's time.
1MDB borrowed US$1.2 billion from IPIC in 2015. The sum was repaid by 1MDB under a settlement agreement inked in 2017. 1MDB said at that time that it raised the funds for repayment via asset sales, but did not give details.
The subject of the diversion is the subject of the six CBT charges, as the RM6.6 billion government funds were initially allocated for, among others, Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia, the East Coast Rail Link project, and funds for the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. There was also a sale of some Bank Negara Malaysia land to repay IPIC.
In February 2023, IPIC and its subsidiary Aabar Investments PJS agreed to pay the Malaysian government US$1.8 billion (RM8.26 billion). The settlement was in respect of the legal proceedings in the London Court of International Arbitration and the London High Court.
However, it is not known whether the sum has been repaid to the Malaysian government. For the 'settlement' representation letters sent by both Najib and Irwan, the outcome has not been determined until now.