KUALA LUMPUR (June 3): The High Court here had on Friday (June 3) postponed again the hearing of submissions on the prosecution's application to call former 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) president and chief executive officer Arul Kanda Kandasamy as its witness to testify against former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in the 1MDB audit report tampering trial to a tentative date on June 14, 2022 because Najib's lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah tested positive for Covid-19.
The postponement of the Friday High Court hearing to June 14 followed a deferment from the original hearing date on Monday (May 30) to Friday as Muhammad Shafee was down with a fever then.
Shafee & Co lawyer Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohammed told reporters that the postponement was mentioned during case management on Friday before High Court Deputy Registrar Catherine Nicholas.
Wan Aizuddin said hearing of submissions on the prosecution's application has been tentatively set for June 14, 2022 as Justice Mohamed Zaini Mazlan wants to hear the application as soon as possible.
Wan Aizuddin said the High Court had also set July 4 and July 14 for the hearing.
"But those dates (July 4 and July 14) are dependent on the outcome of this application, whether Arul (Kanda) will be called a (prosecution) witness," Wan Aizuddin said.
On May 20, 2022, the prosecution in the 1MDB audit report tampering trial made the application at the High Court here to seek Arul Kanda's presence as a prosecution witness to testify against Najib.
Senior deputy public prosecutor Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram, who made the application before Justice Mohamed Zaini, said then the prosecution made the application as Arul Kanda, who is an accused in the case, has information about transactions made by the other accused Najib in February 2016.
Sri Ram said the 1MDB-related transaction information that Arul Kanda has will materially affect the outcome of the prosecution against Najib, who is the former chairman of 1MDB's board of advisers.
Arul Kanda is charged with abetting Najib in the alleged tampering of the 1MDB audit report at a meeting with National Audit Department officers on Feb 24, 2016.
Arul Kanda is represented by lawyer Datuk N Sivananthan.