PUTRAJAYA, April 21 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak will call former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng as a defence witness in his 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) trial, his lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah confirmed today.
Shafee claimed Ng was "playing hide and seek" initially, and said Najib's lawyers was previously unable to confirm whether Ng was being kept under witness protection.
"But finally we are happy to say that Roger Ng is being brought for us to produce him as a witness, so that we can ask him a lot of details pertaining to what he knows about the actors, the real actors in the 1MDB scandal, and perhaps he may even be able to say that Datuk Seri Najib, as far as he is concerned, is not involved," Shafee said in a press conference at the court complex here.
Shafee said Najib's lawyers have yet to meet Ng in person, adding that they have asked to interview Ng ahead of his testimony in court.
Shafee said it would be important to have the interview with Ng to let Najib preview Ng's potential testimony and assess his value as a witness, and to allow Ng to prepare for his court testimony.
But if Ng declines to be interviewed, Shafee said Najib will still call him as a defence witness on subpoena — a court order compelling him to testify.
Shafee said Najib's defence in the 1MDB trial is that the case should not be against him alone when others — including 1MDB's board, 1MDB's management, and banks such as Goldman Sachs — had allegedly failed or been dishonest.
"So, our defence is, ‘why are you looking at Datuk Seri Najib alone’; in fact, we shouldn't be looking at him, because those people who committed the offences are now mere witnesses, and (yet) Datuk Seri Najib is the only one facing the music," he said.
Last week, the prosecution said Ng would be made available as a potential defence witness for the 1MDB trial.
Regarding a separate matter, Shafee referenced his previous statement on February 12 that Najib would apply to cite former attorney general Tan Sri Ahmad Terrirudin Mohd Salleh for contempt of court over the former Yang di-Pertuan Agong's alleged “addendum” order for Najib to be placed under house arrest.
Today, Shafee said current Attorney General Datuk Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar had written a letter about three weeks ago urging him not to file the contempt action.
However, after considering the matter, Shafee said Najib would still be filing the contempt action within the next week or two.
Najib is currently incarcerated at Kajang prison and is separately seeking to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest.
Najib was sentenced in August 2022 to 12 years’ jail in his trial involving RM42 million belonging to SRC International Sdn Bhd, but this sentence was later reduced to six years by the Pardons Board.
He has been imprisoned for about one year and eight months.
When asked if Najib would be seeking a full pardon, Shafee said his client is still pursuing the matter of the addendum first, adding: "But we are going to give a little time whether or not we want to go further to the full pardon. We can always do it, but not at the moment."
