PUTRAJAYA, April 5 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s lawyers today dismissed the possibility of witness tampering if their client is provided the additional documents from the investigations leading to his trial over SRC International Sdn Bhd’s RM42 million.

Najib’s lawyer Harvinderjit Singh argued that the claim that there would be witness tampering was unrealistic.

“Both the High Court and Court of Appeal say there is an inherent risk of witness tampering... It doesn’t exist, it’s a figment of imagination,” he said.

Today was the Federal Court’s hearing of Najib’s appeal to obtain additional documents from the prosecution which he says is necessary to prepare for his defence.

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The hearing today was before a seven-man panel chaired by Chief Justice Tan Sri Richard Malanjum, and composed of Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Zaharah Ibrahim, Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Datuk Seri David Wong Dak Wah, Tan Sri Ramly Ali, Datuk Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, Tan Sri Idrus Harun and Datuk Nallini Pathmanathan.

Harvinderjit noted that there have been no complaints of witness tampering after the prosecution provided witness statements from its witnesses to Najib.

“They have to date provided 26 witness statements... From February until now, there have been no issues,” he added.

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Harvinderjit said the existence of the Witness Protection Act 2009 and the Whistleblowers Protection Act 2010 provide for the protection of witnesses and against the risk of witness tampering.

Najib wants documents which the prosecution is not legally required to provide and which the prosecution is not relying on as evidence for the trial.

As of now, the prosecution has already provided Najib 32 volumes of documents numbering approximately 7,000 pages, which the prosecution will use in the trial.

Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah questioned the Federal Court’s seven-man panel on how many cases of witness tampering that they had encountered in the country.

“Are we talking of ghost stories or reality?” he asked.

“In all countries in the Commonwealth, witness tampering is an imaginary fear provided by some courts in order to justify a decision,” he said.

Shafee also shared his experience while representing former minister Tan Sri Kasitah Gaddam in a corruption case previously, where he said the prosecution had carried out an experiment by providing all its documents, including documents which the prosecution was not relying on in the trial, to his client.

Shafee said he had then exchanged documents with the prosecution before the trial before High Court judge Suraya Othman,

“What transpired, the entire trial designated for about four months was finished in three weeks, because both parties knew each other’s cases,” he said when arguing for Najib to be supplied with all documents that the prosecution has.

Kasitah was acquitted on August 12, 2009 by the High Court, which found that the prosecution had failed to prove a prima facie case against him.

Ad hoc prosecutor Datuk V. Sithambaram however argued that the entire investigating papers would have to be delivered over to Najib, if the court grants the order for the additional documents to be given to Najib.

“This application, if allowed, will have far-reaching effects on all MACC and AMLA cases,” he said, when arguing that the prosecution would be required to provide investigation papers to the defence in future corruption and money-laundering cases.

Sithambaram had previously argued in the Court of Appeal that a ruling in favour of Najib would cause members of the public to not be willing to come forward as prosecution witnesses in the future.

Najib had previously failed at both the High Court and Court of Appeal to obtain the additional documents from the prosecution.

The Federal Court is set to decide on April 10 a total of four appeals on pre-trial matters, including this appeal for more documents, in Najib’s trial.

Najib’s trial in the High Court started on April 3 with one prosecution witness testifying so far, and will resume on April 15 to May 10.