KUALA LUMPUR, June 15 — Proceedings of Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s trial on the alleged tampering of the Auditor-General’s audit report on 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) was postponed today as defence lawyers requested time to undergo Covid-19 screenings after one of them fell sick this morning. 

Lead defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah told the court that a lawyer from his firm and on the team, Rahmat Hazlan, was experiencing high fever and cough at around 4.45am this morning.

Shafee explained that Rahmat, who was with him on the legal team during the Cradle Fund murder case heard in Shah Alam’s High Court on Friday, had appeared unwell since then but his condition deteriorated early this morning. 

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“This morning around 4.45am, he had a high fever and he was coughing, so we arranged for a doctor to meet him and get him tested. 

“The results of his test, the one with 100 per cent accuracy, will take 24 hours, so we ask that today’s session be vacated pending the results of Rahmat’s results,” he said. 

Shafee said he too would undergo a Covid-19 test for good measure, saying it would be his sixth time being tested, adding how he was the only person from the firm to have come into contact with Rahmat while he appeared unwell. 

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In response, ad-hoc prosecutor Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram said he would not object to the application, and advised Shafee to quickly get tested. 

“Since my learned friend has been exposed to a possible Covid-19 patient, it is only quite right he gets tested,” he said in response. 

High Court Judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan then allowed for the court to be vacated for the rest of the day, as they await the test results of Rahmat and Shafee. 

Additionally, an application seeking to disqualify Sri Ram as the prosecutor on the case following an affidavit released by former Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali, was submitted by the defence to the court. 

Mohamed Zaini then set Aug 7 as the hearing date for the application and instructed for the trial to continue tomorrow morning pending the outcome of the Covid-19 tests.

On June 10, Apandi posted a Facebook post containing allegations regarding a purported January 2018 meeting with Sri Ram and claims that Sri Ram had then allegedly conveyed a message for Najib to be arrested, but Sri Ram has reportedly declined comment.

Apandi was the attorney-general from July 2015 to May 2018.

In this case, Najib is on a joint trial with former 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy, with the latter accused of abetting the former prime minister in the alleged tampering of the 1MDB audit report.

Najib is accused of having misused his positions as prime minister and finance minister to avoid civil or criminal action by ordering amendments to the Auditor-General’s 1MDB audit report before it was finalised and presented to Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, while Arul Kanda is accused of having helped Najib commit the alleged offence.