PUTRAJAYA, May 6 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is no longer calling Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Razarudin Husain to be his defence witness in his 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) trial,

Previously, Najib obtained a court order to compel the top police officer to come to court to testify in the 1MDB trial.

But Najib’s lead defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah today confirmed the change of plans to no longer call the IGP.

Shafee said he had interviewed an unnamed police officer — whom Najib wanted to call instead of the IGP — but was not satisfied that this police officer would be able to give the kind of court testimony required.

"Because I discover it was a learned knowledge that was reposed to this officer. So instead of wasting time, I’ve decided not to call him,” Shafee told the High Court when describing the police officer as not having first-hand knowledge of what he had wanted to ask.

"We won’t call any witnesses towards that,” Shafee added when confirming that Najib’s lawyers would be presenting their arguments in submissions instead of calling in any witnesses from the police force.

Shafee said that this means the Home Ministry could withdraw its application to set aside the court order or subpoena for the IGP to come as a defence witness, saying: "We don’t need further prolonging of the matter.”

Senior federal counsel Mohd Zain Ibrahim, who represented the Home Ministry, then applied to withdraw the ministry’s application to set aside the subpoena on the IGP.

Trial judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah then struck off the application.

The Home Ministry’s legal adviser, senior federal counsel Muhammad Ilmami Ahmad also represented the ministry today.

The High Court had previously fixed May 5 to hear the application to set aside the subpoena on the IGP, but that hearing did not go on as Shafee yesterday indicated that Najib could decide not to call in the IGP as a defence witness.

The subpoena was given to the IGP on April 14, with Najib’s lawyer Wan Azwan Aiman Wan Fakhruddin previously having told the High Court that the IGP’s testimony would be relevant to his defence in the 1MDB trial.

At that time, Najib’s lawyers wanted to find out the location of former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng, who had returned to Malaysia.

On April 24, Ng testified as a defence witness in Najib’s 1MDB trial.

The 1MDB trial resumes this afternoon, with Shafee indicating that he intends to recall Najib as the first defence witness to ask him about his signatures in 1MDB documents.