Najib’s 1MDB trial postponed today due to sick leave after eye surgery

KUALA LUMPUR, May 24 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) trial was postponed today, as he is on sick leave following eye surgery last Thursday.

Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah this morning informed the High Court that the former prime minister had had surgery on both his eyes last Thursday, which was also a day when the 1MDB trial had been heard.

“That was last Thursday, the 20th, I think immediately, almost after the case, because he was hoping to recover in the next few days. But unfortunately, Yang Arif, he developed a hematoma as is usually expected.

“I didn’t want to tell the court earlier that he got medical leave on the 20th itself for seven days. The reason being we were all hoping that he would recover by yesterday and that he could come today, but yesterday the hematoma became worst, but I think it is on the way down,” Shafee said, adding that the medical letter had been given to the judge while the necessary medical certificate would be given to the judge today before noon.

High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah then suggested that the lawyers appear in court tomorrow again to see if the trial could go on, while giving Najib “a rest today”.

“Perhaps we can try tomorrow to have this case. Give him the day off, tomorrow we can try... Why not we just come here, meet tomorrow as usual here, and then if the hematoma is somehow OK, then we can proceed,” the judge said.

While Shafee said that his client temporarily did not have clear vision: “He has this transient inability to have a clear vision, he couldn’t sign cheques, for example.”

The judge then noted that Najib could just sit in court tomorrow without having to exert himself by reading or doing anything, then said: “We meet here as usual because the case is scheduled for hearing. I give him the day off. Tomorrow 9.30am.”

Najib’s 1MDB trial was scheduled to be heard today, tomorrow and on Thursday this week, as Wednesday is a public holiday.

Trial dates for Najib’s 1MDB case — involving four counts of power abuse and 21 counts of money laundering charges in relation to more than RM2 billion of 1MDB funds — have previously been set in all of the remaining months this year (June to December).

This is not the first time that Najib’s trials had to be postponed due to his eye problems.

Previously in August 2019, Najib’s trial involving SRC International Sdn Bhd’s RM42 million funds was postponed as he had an eye infection.

Najib’s 1MDB trial was previously postponed on September 11, 2019 due to his eye condition, and was also briefly suspended for an extra two hours on September 18 to allow for Najib to seek medical attention for his eyes and to avoid a full-blown conjunctivitis from recurring and was carried on with the same afternoon.

On October 31, 2019, Najib’s 1MDB trial also had to be postponed due to his swollen eyes.

Since Najib’s 1MDB trial began on August 28, 2019, events linked to the Covid-19 pandemic including the movement control order (MCO) in 2020 had caused disruption to the trial, apart from Najib having to attend his other trials due to the need to ensure a fair trial.

The 1MDB trial could not proceed on March 12, 2020 because Shafee and his entire legal team had to go into quarantine as his sister-in-law was a close contact of a person who had tested positive for Covid-19.

Shafee later tested negative, but the trial dates from March 19 onwards were repeatedly postponed and rescheduled due to the MCO and various phases of the MCO, with the trial only resuming May 19 last year.

The trial was again postponed and did not proceed according to previously scheduled trial dates from October 5 to 8, as Najib was in voluntary 14-day self-quarantine at home following his September 27 return after assisting Barisan Nasional’s election campaign in Sabah.

The reintroduction of the conditional movement control order (CMCO) later resulted in the 1MDB trial being unable to proceed in October and November, with the trial subsequently also not proceeding in December due to Najib having to attend Dewan Rakyat sittings as the Pekan MP. The trial then resumed in January and February 2021.

On February 18 (which was the last remaining trial date for February for the 1MDB case before hearing resumes in May), the hearing on that day had to be cut short, as prosecution witness Mohd Hazem Abd Rahman was informed that a friend who had met him in the same meeting room had tested positive for Covid-19.

Previously on February 10 when Hazem had fallen ill with fever symptoms, the 1MDB trial could still proceed as another prosecution witness was called to testify, with the court at that time asking for Hazem to undergo Covid-19 tests. Hazem later tested negative for Covid-19 and could resume testifying on the next scheduled trial date.

Earlier this month, the 1MDB trial was also postponed for several days, as one of Najib’s key lawyers and members of his legal team had to be quarantined due to Covid-19-related concerns.