KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 23 — Former Prime Minister  Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s trial  over a charge of tampering with the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) final audit report together with 1MDB former chief executive officer (CEO) Arul Kanda Kandasamy commenced at the High Court here with a witness making an explosive confession that she secretly taped recorded a meeting linked to the alleged altering of the report.

Nobody could have known what actually transpired in the meeting on February 24, 2016, if National Audit Department (NAD) audit director Nor Salwani Muhammad, 52, had not secretly slipped in a voice recorder into a pencil case belonging to NAD officer, Saadatul Nafisah Bashir Ahmad, who attended the meeting just before the meeting commenced. 

In the opening statement on the first day of the trial, lead prosecutor Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram, among others said the prosecution would show that Najib did what he did to avoid civil or criminal liability against him as a shadow director of 1MDB, as well as, use his position to obtain gratification within Section 3 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act. 

Najib, 66, was charged with using his position to order amendments to the 1MDB final audit report to avoid any action against him before it was tabled to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), while Arul Kanda was charged with abetting Najib in committing the offence.

They allegedly committed the offence at the Prime Minister’s Department Complex, Federal Government’s Administrative Centre, the Federal Territory of Putrajaya, between February 22 and 26, 2016.

The following is a recap of the witness testimonies before High Court Judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan.

Former 1MDB CEO, Arul Kanda Kandasamy, is pictured at the Kuala Lumpur Courts Complex November 18, 2019. — Picture by Hari Anggara

DAY 1 (November 18):