KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has fixed 33 days for the trial of Datuk Seri Najib Razak's criminal breach of trust, power abuse, and money laundering charges.
Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali said the trial would start next year on Feb 12 until Feb 28 and will continue from March 4 until March 29.
The court also fixed Oct 4 for case management.
Earlier, deputy public prosecutor Datuk Mohamad Hanafiah Zakaria told the court that the prosecution team was ready to start the trial in November this year.
“This is in line with Section 172B(4) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) which provides trial for criminal cases to start 90 days after the accused has been charged in court,” he said.
Hanafiah added that the prosecution would call 50 witnesses during the trial.
However, Najib’s counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah objected stating that he need more time to study the 3,500 pages of documents which he only received on Wednesday.
“The section (Section 172B(4) of the CPC) is just a guideline and it is not compulsory for us to follow it.
“For example the trial of Lim Guan Eng's graft case and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's sodomy case only started six and two months, respectively, after they were charged in court,” he said.
Muhammad Shafee before delivering his submission for Najib’s application for a gag order on the media against discussing the merits of his criminal cases told the court that he was unsatisfied by the way the prosecution carried their cases.
“I only received the documents in a compact disc (CD) and my employees spent three days in front of the printing machine to prepare the documents.
“This is not the way to serve us… they (prosecution team) have all the advantages to view the documents,” he said.
However, Hanafiah replied that under Section 51A of the Evidence Act 1950, it required the prosecution team to pass the documents to the defence team.
“It does not clarify that we need to submit it in the physical form,” he said.
On July 4, Najib claimed trial to three counts of criminal breach of trust and another charge of abuse of power involving RM42 million linked to SRC International Sdn Bhd, a former subsidiary of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).
He also claimed trial at the High Court on Wednesday to receiving more than RM40 million from illegal proceeds linked to SRC International.
He was alleged to have received RM42 million in total, at an Am Islamic Bank branch via electronic funds transfer at Jalan Raja Chulan here between Dec 26, 2014, and Feb 10, 2015.
The offence falls under Section 4 (1) (b) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act.
Najib faces a maximum 15 years’ jail and no less than five times the amount of proceeds involved, or a RM5 million fine, whichever is higher, if convicted.