PUTRAJAYA: It looks like the defence team of Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s will be rolling up their sleeves to make a final bid to halt the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) financial scandal trial from proceeding.
This was after the Court of Appeal today affirmed the High Court’s decision that the much anticipated trial must commence from Aug 19 onwards.
As the trial is expected to kick-off less than two weeks from now, Najib’s lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said they would file an appeal at the Federal Court.
“We will file an appeal today. We will use the judgment by the Court of Appeal today as the ground of judgement for our appeal,” he said when met after the proceedings.
Court of Appeal Judge Datuk Abdul Rahman Sebli, who presided over the appeals with Justices Datuk Zabariah Mohd Yusof and Datuk Hasnah Mohammed Hashim, unanimously dismissed the appeal filed by both prosecution and defence team.
The prosecution team was led by Attorney-General (A-G) Tommy Thomas.
Abdul Rahman in his judgment said the learned High Court Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah had used his discretion in coming out with his decision.
On July 8, Sequerah rejected Thomas third’s application to postpone Najib’s 1MDB trial until Najib’s trial involving abuse of SRC International Sdn Bhd funds is completed.
The A-G had on June 21 also applied for a postponement of the 1MDB trial stating that Najib’s SRC International trial was moving at slower pace than expected.
He applied to the court to vacate the dates in August and September which were fixed for the 1MDB trial to make way for the continuation of the SRC International trial.
Thomas said the 1MDB’s trial could begin in October.
On May 14, Sequerah agreed to a second postponement of the 1MDB trial to Aug 19, to make way for the ongoing SRC International trial.
The SRC International trial was earlier expected to be concluded this month.
On Sept 20 last year, Najib was charged with 25 corruption counts involving RM2.28 billion of 1MDB money.
His first four charges were framed under Section 23(1) and 24(1) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009; while the other 21 charges were under Section 4(1)(a) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act 2001 (AMLATFA).
For the charges under the MACC Act, the 66-year-old was accused of using his position as prime minister, finance minister and chairman of the 1MDB advisory board at the time, to receive bribes on four occasions.
Meanwhile, the money-laundering charges against the former Prime Minister include nine counts of receiving illegal proceeds, five counts of using illegal proceeds and seven counts of transferring the proceeds to other entities.
MORE TO COME