Najib’s 1MDB trial finally resumes today, after two delays this week due to ‘yellow’ MySejahtera status

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 16 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) trial finally managed to proceed today, after it had to be postponed twice earlier this week due to his MySejahtera status being “yellow”.

Just before 9am this morning, Najib was sighted showing his MySejahtera status to the Kuala Lumpur court complex’s security personnel, and it was seen as being “yellow”.

At around 10.27am, Najib was spotted entering and sitting in the courtroom. The 1MDB trial proceedings started at around 10.36am.

At the start of the trial, Najib’s lawyer Datuk Hariharan Tara Singh did not state his client’s MySejahtera status today, but merely said his presence was not against any government rules.

“The client also would wish to put on record that he is not in breach of the government regulations or the court directions that says you are not allowed to enter this premises if your MySejahtera indicates casual contact, just only that," he said briefly.

After that, Hariharan then proceeded to cross-examine the 13th prosecution witness in this trial — former 1MDB director Tan Sri Ismee Ismail.

Separately, Malay Mail has confirmed that Najib’s MySejahtera status is still “yellow” as of now.

Later, when asked if Najib’s MySejahtera status was still “yellow”, Hariharan confirmed this and added that the High Court judge had exercised discretion in allowing his client into the courtroom.

“Yes. But I believe the court exercised their discretion on a case to case basis to allow Datuk Seri Najib to enter the court premises,” he told Malay Mail when contacted after the trial.

Najib had tested negative for Covid-19 after undergoing a RT-PCR test on December 12 and had also tested negative using a saliva self-test kit on December 13.

The 1MDB trial was initially scheduled to go on for hearing for four days this week, from Monday until today.

But three days of hearing were lost, as both Najib and his lead defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah had MySejahtera statuses that were not “blue” in colour or in the “low-risk” category.

Hariharan previously told the court that Najib and Shafee had been in contact on December 6 with Shafee’s son who had subsequently tested positive, and that the duo’s 10-day quarantine period would be expected to end on December 15 (yesterday).

Today, Najib’s status was still “yellow” in MySejahtera but his self-quarantine period would have ended, and Hariharan had also earlier this week told the court that Najib was categorised in the app as a “casual contact”.

The blue status refers to the “low-risk” classification, while the yellow status is for “casual contacts with no symptoms” or “persons under surveillance”, and the orange status refers to the classifications of “casual contacts with symptoms”, “close contacts” and “suspected cases”, while the red status is for confirmed Covid-19 cases.

The Kuala Lumpur court complex only allows those with blue status — low risk — in their MySejahtera to enter, with a notice at its ground floor entrance showing that entry would be denied for those who are with the “yellow” status in the “person under surveillance” or the “casual contacts with no symptoms” categories, and the “orange” status for “casual contacts with symptoms” or “suspected cases” and “red” status. 

Based on the judiciary’s written standard operating procedures to prevent Covid-19 that has been applicable to all courts throughout Malaysia since January 27 this year, those who are not allowed to be in court include those tested positive for Covid-19, those who have symptoms or whose body temperature exceeds 37.5 degree Celsius, or have close contact with Covid-19 cases.

The judiciary’s written SOPs since January 27 also states that those disallowed in court are those categorised as Person Under Investigation (PUI) or Person Under Surveillance (PUS), or have undergone a Covid-19 swab but have yet to receive their test results, but did not mention casual contacts as also being similarly barred from entry.

The 1MDB trial today did not go past noon, as Ismee was on medications and painkillers and did not feel well.

Today is the last scheduled date for the 1MDB trial to be heard this year, and it will resume on January 5 next year. Other trial dates already scheduled for Najib’s 1MDB case are in March to June 2022, and August to October 2022.

At the end of today’s proceedings, High Court judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah briefly remarked “we keep losing days, by the day, by the month, by the week, by the year”, before then fixing further hearings dates for the 1MDB trial. 

The judge fixed the additional hearing dates that will run until December 2022, namely October 11 to 13, 17 to 20, November 7 to 10, 14 to 17, 21 to 24, and December 5 to 8, and December 12 to 15.