KUALA LUMPUR: The highly anticipated presence of Datuk Seri Najib Razak to testify as a witness at his wife's corruption trial today turned out to be a dampener as he was a no show at the Duta Courts complex.
This was because Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor's lawyers decided at the eleventh hour not to call the former prime minister as their witness.
Rosmah's lawyer Datuk Jagjit Singh informed High Court Judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan at the onset of today's hearing that the defence had decided to restrategise after discussing the merits of calling Najib.
"We had a brainstorming session on Saturday which went on till late Sunday and we have elected not to call Najib as our witness.
"We decided that his evidence is merely corroborative in nature. We have therefore decided to restrategise and elected not to call him," he said, adding the defence only reached the decision late yesterday evening.
He then went on to apologise to the court for the last minute decision.
Lead prosecutor Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram said the prosecution had no issues with the defence's decision not to call Najib as it was their prerogative to do so.
Zaini later vacated hearing dates which had been fixed for this week as the other witness scheduled to testify in Rosmah's defence, Datuk Seri Azizah Sheikh Abod, 72, is away to perform the Umrah.
She is scheduled to take the stand again on Feb 4.
Rosmah, 70, was ordered to enter her defence against three corruption charges on Feb 18 last year.
She is facing a charge of soliciting RM187.5 million from Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd to help the company secure a RM1.25 billion project to supply solar hybrid energy to rural schools in Sarawak.
She is also accused of receiving a total of RM6.5 million to ensure the company got the project.