KUALA LUMPUR: Senior lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah is seeking to expunge certain paragraphs in the witness statement of an income tax officer in his money laundering trial.
Shafee's lawyer Harvinderjit Singh informed the High Court of the matter when the prosecution was about to call its witness Syed Nasrul Fahmi Syed Mohamad to the stand to testify during the trial.
Harvinderjit said the defence was objecting to the contents of Syed Nasrul's written statement as the latter was giving his legal opinion when he has no legal background.
The witness, he said, had made his own conclusions and given his own opinions in relation to the case.
"We want to object particularly on the contents of the 13-page witness statement of Syed Nasrul and for some paragraphs in the statement to be expunged.
"This is because the witness is not a legal expert to be giving the court conclusions on legal issues," he said before reading out several paragraphs from the witness statement which the defence is seeking to expunge.
He said the defence was applying to remove 33 out of 51 paragraphs so that none of the testomonies which are prejudicial to his client would be included in the statement.
Deputy public prosecutor Afzainizam Abdul Aziz then proposed for the defence's objection to be dealt with first before calling the witness to the stand.
He said the prosecution would like to address the matter properly as the defence had raised issues concerning law and fact.
"The defence has given notice to object 33 paragraphs which is almost more than half of the proposed testimony of my witness and the issues raised are very serious.
"We would like to deal with the matter before calling the witness to the stand because if the court's decision is not in our (prosecution's) favour, it would mean that we cannot use the existing witness statement altogether," he said.
Judge Datuk Muhammad Jamil Hussin then suggested that the witness read out his statement first in the next session so that the defence could point out in court the paragraphs they wished to expunge.
The trial resumes on Dec 8.
Shafee, 69, is facing two counts of money-laundering relating to a RM9.5 million payment he received from former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak
He was also charged under the Income Tax Act with two counts of making false declarations to the Inland Revenue Board for not including the RM9.5 million in his tax filing, for the years 2013 and 2014.
The Umno lawyer pleaded not guilty to all four charges on Sept 13, 2018. He was released on a RM1 million bail and his passport was also impounded.