KUALA LUMPUR, March 3 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is grateful that the High Court acquitted him today for a power abuse charge over the removal of key information from the auditor-general’s 2016 report on 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), his lawyer said today.
Najib’s lead defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah shared his client’s response to the High Court’s decision today, as his client is currently a prisoner and cannot give press conferences.
“He is grateful to Allah for this decision today because it really uplifts his spirit and the desire to fight his cases,” Shafee told the media when met at the lobby of the Kuala Lumpur court complex.
Listing the many criminal cases that Najib has, Shafee remarked the High Court’s decision today is the first where his client has obtained a good outcome.
“In this case, this is the first case out of all those politically-charged cases that we got a very good result.
“I’m hoping the Attorney General’s Chambers will not appeal on this because the finding of the judge is completely supportable and has corroborated his findings. We hope this is the beginning of many good things that should come,” he said.
Shafee said Najib was “so relieved” over the High Court’s decision today, and went on to say that the judge had found that there was no element of gratification or corruption in the case against Najib.
“And this, Datuk Seri Najib, wants to communicate to the members of the media, that he is very grateful because that is what hurts him most if ever there is a finding of gratification,” the lawyer said.
In this case, Najib was accused of instructing for the amendments to the audit report, to seek “gratification” for himself by seeking to protect himself from civil or criminal action over his role in handling 1MDB’s operations.
Earlier, judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan said there was no connection shown between the removal of the information from the 1MDB audit report and the alleged gratification of avoiding civil or criminal action, and found that the prosecution could not prove gratification.
Shafee also took the opportunity to praise former auditor-general Tan Sri Ambrin Buang who had testified as a prosecution witness in this case.
“I think I owe a duty to the former auditor-general who I’ve always thought throughout my cross-examination of that gentleman, I thought he was a pride of Malaysia because he was a person of credible means and very credible character to have held that position.
“And he didn’t buckle under pressure be it in the parliamentary inquiry, he gave evidence there and he stood fast throughout and he gave similar evidence in court despite this being such a publicly-charged case, so I think if you have characters like that in the public service, this country has got hope,” he said.
While Najib has been acquitted today, he is still facing other criminal cases including the ongoing trial over the misappropriation of RM2.28 billion of 1MDB’s funds, as well as two cases that have yet to begin trial — — a money-laundering case involving SRC International Sdn Bhd’s RM27 million and his joint trial with former Treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah involving six criminal breach of trust charges over RM6.6 billion of government funds.
Najib is also still challenging his conviction and 12-year jail sentence and RM210 million fine over the misappropriation of RM42 million of SRC’s funds.
When met by reporters at the lobby of the court complex, Najib’s wife Datin Rosmah Mansor said her husband feels grateful.
“Today’s decision is a victory for my husband, for our family, thank you very much,” she said, and later said “Insya-Allah (God willing), better things to come”.
Former 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy, who was also an accused person in this joint trial with Najib, expressed relief at being acquitted.
Explaining what he had spoken with Najib in their brief exchange in the courtroom immediately after they were acquitted, Arul Kanda said: “Both of us felt a sense of vindication and a sense of relief that this ordeal is now over.”
As for what he plans to do next now that he has been released from this trial, Arul Kanda said: “I think the immediate next step is to update my CV”.
Today, the judge had highlighted that Arul Kanda had been publicly vilified for 1MDB affairs and how such vilification were “perhaps unfairly” done as many of 1MDB problems happened before he joined the company, and had also said there was no evidence in trial to suggest Arul Kanda was complicit or responsible for 1MDB problems.
Asked for what he thought about the judge’s highlighting of how he had been vilified, Arul Kanda said he was grateful.
“Well I think the facts speak for themselves and I feel that throughout, I’ve been honest and I’ve been straightforward in terms of what I’ve done, why I took the job and what I did in the job. And I think some of the achievements from the performance of the role is there to be seen in terms of reduction of 1MDB’s debts.
“You have all seen TRX, how that project is coming along really well, so I feel my record stands for itself. I’m grateful for the learned judge for highlighting some of these important facts,” he said.
Besides being thankful for the court’s decision today, Arul Kanda also expressed his thanks for the support he had received, especially his family and also his “very good friends” who had stood by him in the past few years while he was facing trial.
He also thanked his lawyers Sivananthan and Jasmine Cheong for “their tireless efforts and hard work in ensuring justice has been served”.
Arul Kanda’s lead defence lawyer Datuk N. Sivananthan expressed happiness over the High Court’s decision to acquit his client and over the judge’s findings.
“My client Mr Arul Kanda has not only been acquitted and discharged, the trial judge in his judgment made it very clear that as far as he was concerned, Mr Arul Kanda had absolutely no involvement in any of the matters pertaining to 1MDB.
“He found him to be an honest witness, he was being very forthright in his evidence, so not only we are happy with the decision of the court, but we are very happy with the findings by the court which in my mind clearly showed that he should not have been charged in the first place,” the lawyer said.
Later Sivananthan also remarked about his client: “Probably after the testimony, he is now very eligible for employment.”
Previously, Arul Kanda had told the High Court that he is currently a director in a company that he owns.
In this trial, Najib is accused of having abused his position as prime minister and finance minister between February 22 and February 26, 2016, by allegedly instructing for amendments to the 1MDB audit report — which was already ready to be presented to the PAC — before it was finally presented to the PAC.
Najib is accused of having done so to protect himself from civil or criminal action over his role in the handling of 1MDB operations.
In this trial, Arul Kanda was accused of having abetted Najib, but he had also testified as the 15th prosecution witness.
When met after the High Court’s decision today, deputy public prosecutor Kamal Baharin Omar confirmed to reporters that the prosecution will study the grounds of judgment and will refer this matter to the attorney-general to decide on whether an appeal would be filed.
The prosecution will have 14 days to file an appeal to the Court of Appeal, if it does decide to file one.
