KUALA LUMPUR, April 17 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak today withdrew his attempt to subpoena the director of Malaysia’s witness protection programme to testify as a defence witness in his 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) trial, as former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng will now be made available as a potential defence witness.
The High Court was scheduled this morning to hear applications by the prosecution and the Prime Minister’s Department’s Protection Division to set aside two subpoenas issued to Ng and to the Protection Division’s director-general Khairul Anwar Zakaria @ Abdul Hamid, but the matter has now been resolved.
The court had issued the subpoenas — or court orders — at Najib’s request, seeking to compel both Khairul Anwar and Ng to testify for the defence.
Deputy public prosecutor Kamal Baharin Omar informed the High Court this morning, however, that the prosecution would produce Ng in court as a witness according to the subpoena.
Kamal Baharin added that he would discuss with Najib’s lawyers the specific dates to facilitate and make arrangements for Ng to attend court.
Najib’s lead defence lawyer, Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, then confirmed that the defence would drop its subpoena against the witness protection chief.
As Yang Arif can appreciate, the defence has never been interested in the director-general, that’s a fact. Our interest is only in Roger Ng Chong Hwa.
“The reason why we had to subpoena the DG is to get the DG to tell the court and therefore us, where is Roger Ng, so that we can execute a subpoena on Roger Ng.
“So with the undertaking that Roger Ng will be produced for two purposes, one is to interview him, and to call him as a witness, we can withdraw the subpoena of the DG,” Shafee told the court.
“That I confirm we can withdraw, because as I’ve said we are never interested in troubling the DG, but we just want to have Roger Ng as a possible witness,” he added.
Shafee confirmed Najib will maintain the subpoena on Ng, which was sent to the witness protection chief Khairul Anwar’s office.
The subpoena issued to Khairul Anwar was dated April 7 this year, while the subpoena issued to Ng was dated April 14.
Since Najib dropped the subpoena against Khairul Anwar, the government withdrew its application to set aside this subpoena, and the High Court subsequently struck out the application.
Judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah thanked both sides for resolving the issue regarding Ng’s production as a possible defence witness, while Shafee thanked Kamal Baharin for “his timely intervention and resolving the matter”.
Kamal Baharin also informed the High Court that both sides will further discuss the matter of the subpoena — also issued on Najib’s request — to compel Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Razarudin Husain to be a defence witness in the 1MDB trial, and that this matter will be updated to the court.
Senior federal counsel Nur Hidayah Raihan Md Nasir, from the Prime Minister’s Department’s Protection Division, represented Khairul Anwar in the applications to set aside the subpoenas today.
Senior federal counsel Muhammad Ilmami Ahmad, the Home Ministry’s legal adviser, was also present in court.
Yesterday, Muhammad Ilmami told the High Court that the ministry would apply to set aside the subpoena served on the IGP on April 14, stating the ministry was not informed why the IGP was being subpoenaed for the 1MDB trial.
Najib’s lawyer Wan Azwan Aiman Wan Fakhruddin said yesterday that the defence wants to ask the IGP about Ng’s current location in order to interview him, and about investigations relating to Ng and 1MDB’s former general counsel Jasmine Loo, as well as arrest warrants issued in 2018 against Loo.
