KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 6): High Court Judicial Commissioner (JC) Mohamad Redzuan Idrus struck out several paragraphs of former Damansara MP Tony Pua’s witness statement in the US$5.64 billion 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) civil suit against former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
Redzuan allowed an application by Najib’s lead counsel, Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, to strike out several paragraphs after ruling that they contained “opinion and hearsay”, a contention raised by Shafee on Wednesday.
The 47-page witness statement by Pua seeks to chronicle the 1MDB saga from his vantage point. However, many of the paragraphs rely on news articles.
Shafee claimed that Pua, testifying in his capacity as a former Public Accounts Committee (PAC) member, had relied on media reports to suggest that Najib, or the government had attempted to obstruct efforts to uncover the 1MDB scandal.
The JC ruled that Pua could read out his witness statement, but said he would determine the admissibility of the statement on a paragraph-by-paragraph basis.
Counsel for 1MDB, Lee Shih, in his written submissions to the court on the matter, contended that Pua possesses direct personal knowledge of the events through his roles as a Member of Parliament and a member of the Public Accounts Committee. Lee argued that referenced news articles and public reports are not intended to prove the absolute truth of their contents, but rather to establish the general political climate and the existence of regulatory actions.
Lee further asserted that the court should determine the admissibility of evidence at the end of the trial rather than expunging it prematurely.
After Redzuan’s ruling, the court spent the better part of seven hours hearing and ruling on each of Shafee’s objections as Pua read out his witness statement. After each objection was raised, Redzuan made rulings in real time on whether the paragraph was admissible.
Among the paragraphs struck out were those referring to media reports on former attorney general Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail’s alleged removal from office in 2015 by Najib; former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s removal as Najib’s deputy after he spoke out about the 1MDB saga; Bank Negara Malaysia’s role in the saga; and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s investigations.
It should be noted that Redzuan struck out most of the paragraphs in Pua’s witness statement that relied on news articles as references.
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Pua was called to testify on key events surrounding the 1MDB affair, particularly the political climate in Malaysia during the relevant period.
Pua has yet to complete reading his witness statement. The trial will continue on Aug 10.
The US$5.64 billion civil suit filed by 1MDB is one of several suits against Najib. It centres on allegations that he breached his fiduciary duties and abused his positions as prime minister, finance minister and chairman of 1MDB’s board of advisers, causing the sovereign wealth fund to suffer billions of ringgit in losses.
The suit, brought together with three 1MDB subsidiaries, seeks to recover losses allegedly arising from four major phases of the 1MDB scandal — the Joint Venture, Power Purchase, Aabar-BVI and Tanore phases — with 1MDB claiming that Najib played a central role in approving or facilitating transactions that enabled the misappropriation of its funds.
The civil action is separate from Najib’s concluded criminal 1MDB trial, in which he was convicted over the misappropriation of RM2.3 billion in 1MDB funds. While the criminal proceedings were aimed at determining guilt and punishment, this US$5.64 billion civil suit is intended to recover losses allegedly suffered by 1MDB from Najib and the other defendants.
In the original suit, 1MDB and four subsidiaries had filed a then-US$8 billion action in 2021. The plaintiffs are 1MDB, 1MDB Energy Holdings Ltd, 1MDB Energy Ltd, 1MDB Energy (Langat) Ltd and Global Diversified Investment Company Ltd (formerly known as 1MDB Global Investment Ltd).
They named Najib and six former senior 1MDB officers as defendants, all of whom are either still missing or have fled the country.