Shafee: Najib’s defence on track in SRC trial, one-third witnesses testified so far

KUALA LUMPUR, MAY 29 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s defence in his first-ever trial involving a former 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) unit’s funds is “on track”, his lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah asserted today.

Shafee described the trial as having gone through one-third of the witnesses for the prosecution, saying that Najib’s team of lawyers have been able to establish certain matters in favour of the former prime minister.

“As far as I am concerned, the case for the defence is on track. What we want to prove we have proven, not all; some of them through various witnesses.

“The trial so far has been good from our perspective, and on top of that, we managed to get certain brownie points because some witnesses have come out beyond our expectations,” Shafee told reporters today at the end of the 20th day of the trial.

Shafee cited the example of the 37th prosecution witness and Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd managing director Datuk Dr Shamsul Anwar Sulaiman’s testimony in court today.

Ihsan Perdana was appointed the corporate social responsibility (CSR) partner for former 1MDB subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd, and had each year received a RM20 million grant each from 1MDB and Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia to do CSR works.

Shafee recounted Dr Shamsul’s testimony today under cross-examination, where the latter spoke of how his company’s accounts were allegedly used as a “transit” point for RM42 million to be transferred in December 2014 and February 2015 to two bank accounts that he later found out belonged to Najib.

Among other things, Dr Shamsul said Najib was allegedly shocked and upset that the RM42 million was deposited into his accounts purportedly without his knowledge.

Shafee later said: “We are only through one-third of the witnesses. There’s two-thirds more to come, and I think the bigger witnesses are yet to come.”

The trial is currently at the prosecution stage where the prosecution has to prove a prima facie case. If the prosecution succeeds, Najib will be asked to enter his defence and he can then call in his own set of witnesses to testify.

A total of 38 prosecution witnesses have testified in Najib’s case, where the former prime minister is on trial over a total of seven charges of abuse of position, money-laundering and criminal breach of trust involving RM42 million of SRC International’s funds.

During the course of the trial, witnesses have been referred to and have verified multiple documents, including banking documents, cheques, banking transaction records and other official papers.

The trial is set to resume on June 10 after the Hari Raya break, with the 38th prosecution witness and civil servants pension fund KWAP’s former CEO Datuk Azian Mohd Nor expected to continue testifying.

Najib’s SRC trial is scheduled to be heard for at least 30 days more, which means the case is now expected to run until August 15.

He is facing another 35 charges in four other criminal cases, which have been scheduled for trial from late August this year to June 2020.

The cases cannot be heard simultaneously as Najib has to be physically present in the courtroom for each of these trials.