KUALA LUMPUR: A key prosecution witness in Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s trial was today left trying to explain how things were done in SRC International Sdn Bhd, a 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB)-linked company.
He was put through a barrage of questions by Najib’s lawyers who managed to get the witness, Datuk Suboh Mohd Yassin, to agree that his signature was abused by the company chief executive officer, Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil.
Suboh agreed that Nik Faisal could have fraudulently lifted his signature and pasted it on scanned copies of letters to banks instructing the transfer of funds.
The former non-executive director of SRC International spent a great part of the morning sessions answering numerous questions about this.
Later, the defence also managed to get him to agree that he really did not know much about what was going on in the company apart from believing what Nik Faisal told him.
Suboh agreed that he had no clear understanding of Nik Faisal’s duties and functions as well as those of other senior executives.
Referring to them as “very scanty people”, the 68-year-old said he knew little of what they did in the company.
When lawyer Harvinderjit Singh shot off a few names who had served in the company, Suboh said: “I met them but I don’t know what they were doing.
“They were very scanty people,” he said.
Suboh, who is the 42nd prosecution witness, was also asked about his witness statement which had been prepared for the trial.
He was asked to explain the similarity in the wordings used in his statement and that of another witness, Tan Sri Ismee Ismail.
Ismee, who was the former chairman of SRC International, had taken the stand before Suboh was called last month.
“Can you see that one of the paragraphs in your statement is word for word identical with that of Ismee’s statement.
“Can you explain this,” Harvinderjit asked.
However, Suboh maintained that whatever he told the officer from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) who recorded his statement, were his own words.
“I dictated to him what I wanted to say and he put it in the computer. That is the truth,” he said.
Suboh will continue to be cross examined by Najib’s lawyers when the trial continues on Monday.
Earlier, Najib’s lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah informed Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali that he intended to file a motion in the Court of Appeal on whether a member of parliament (MP) who is on trial can be excused to attend Dewan Rakyat sittings.
He said the defence wanted to get direction on whether an MP facing criminal charges could still be allowed to perform his statutory duties as an elected representative to attend the sittings.
He said the motion was being filed following Mohd Nazlan’s decision to deny Najib’s application to attend the Parliament sitting on Monday.
Najib had requested to be given an off day from his trial as he wanted to be in Parliament to take part in the voting on a bill making it compulsory for MPs to declare their assets.
However, the judge turned down the request following objections from Attorney-General Tommy Thomas, who argued that Najib could always attend Parliament after the trial ended at 5pm.
He said Najib would still be able to take part in the proceedings then as voting was usually done late in the evenings.
He also said there was no guarantee that voting would take place on the same day.
Today, Shafee produced a copy of the New Straits Times (NST) and waved it in front of everyone in court to show the front page report which indicated that the bill had been passed.
“Look here... it was passed on the same day,” he said.
However, lead prosecutor Datuk V Sithambaram then stood up and pointed out that the voting only took place around 6.30pm and that Najib could still have made it to Parliament on Monday if he really wanted to.
Shafee then made another application for Najib to attend a briefing session for MPs which was held during lunch hour today.
The prosecution did not object, with Sithambaram saying “we are very reasonable people”.
The judge then agreed to a longer lunch break and told Najib to be back in court by 2.45pm, which the former prime minister adhered to.
Najib, 66, is facing seven charges of criminal breach of trust, abuse of power and money laundering involving RM42-million of SRC International funds.
The Pekan MP is charged with committing the offences between Aug 17, 2011, and Feb 10, 2015.
He faces 20 years jail and a fine upon conviction.