This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on September 12, 2019
KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s trial (1MDB-Tanore trial) involving 25 counts of abuse of power and money laundering involving funds from 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) has been postponed to Tuesday as the former prime minister is on two days of medical leave (MC) due to another bout of conjunctivitis.
Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib confirmed with The Edge Financial Daily that Najib had obtained the MC for yesterday and today due to the eye infection.
Earlier yesterday morning, the ex-prime minister’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah told the High Court that Najib is expected to miss today’s hearing as well due to his condition.
“I had a call at 7.15am (yesterday) from the client and the wife. The news is that the conjunctivitis has returned and the haze does not help.
“Conjunctivitis is very infectious. I suspect that the hearing tomorrow (today) is out of the question,” Muhammad Shafee told High Court Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah.
Meanwhile, the prosecution and defence could not accommodate Judge Sequerah’s request to resume hearing on subsequent Fridays in lieu of Najib’s sick leave as they will have other cases to attend to.
Najib’s hearing is currently scheduled from Mondays to Thursdays in September and October.
As the coming Monday is a public holiday in conjunction with Malaysia Day, those who follow the trial can expect it to resume on Tuesday.
This is the second time during Najib’s trials that he is said to be down with conjunctivitis. The first time was in August, during the trial involving SRC International Sdn Bhd. He was given a three-day sick leave then.
Yesterday, about 100 Najib supporters from his parliamentary constituency of Pekan, Pahang came to see him at the court complex here.
According to Pekan Umno youth committee member Hussein Ahmad, the contingent — led by Chini state assemblyman Datuk Seri Abu Bakar Harun — left Pekan at 1am in two buses and five cars, arriving at 5am.