This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on May 25, 2020 - May 31, 2020

AS lawyers and interested parties entered Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah’s courtroom in the Kuala Lumpur High Court complex last week to resume the 1MDB trial of former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak after a six-month hiatus, the sentiment was that a lot had changed.

Indeed, top of the agenda before the resumption of the trial was the tighter standard operating procedure (SOP) demanded by the court, which allowed for only three lawyers each for the defence and prosecution.

The change in procedure was necessitated by the Covid-19 pandemic, which over the past nine to 10 weeks had caused activities in the country to grind to a near halt, owing to the imposition of the Movement Control Order (MCO) to stem the spread of the virus.

Under the new normal, the court has to limit the number of people attending court proceedings.

Najib’s lawyer, Tan Sri Shafee Abdullah, said as his case was “literally the biggest case in the world”, the court, in decreasing the number of people, had to take into consideration not only lawyers but also members of the public as well as local and international media.

Lead public prosecutor Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram backed Shafee’s appeal to Sequerah to allow more lawyers to sit in on the proceedings as both sides have eight to 10 lawyers.

Shafee and Sri Ram contended that their full team needed to be present because of the complexity of the case.

At one point, Shafee threatened to discharge himself after a heated exchange of words with Sequerah, who would not acquiesce to their request but suggested that the matter be raised with Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Azahar Mohamed.

Visibly irritated, Sequerah responded: “Then why don’t we adjourn to Pasar Borong Selayang (Selayang Wholesale Market) and have our hearing there! How many lawyers do you want in court?”

Shafee replied: “I cannot function, I have not spoken to my client. I may need to discharge myself.”

After Shafee and Sri Ram sought an audience with Azahar, both had their full team back in court the next day, albeit with social distancing measures in place.

Citing for contempt

At the start of the trial, Sri Ram had informed Sequerah that the prosecution intended to file an application to cite Najib for contempt over comments he made to Reuters in March soon after the Pakatan Harapan government was overthrown by a loose alliance of parties under Perikatan Nasional at the end of February.

“I’m not alluding to anything because there’s no conclusion to the trial ... But hopefully, you know, I will get a fair trial,” Najib was quoted as saying in the Reuters report.

Sri Ram pointed out: “This means that Your Lordship’s court acted unfairly before the changing of the government. This is a serious allegation. I would be pushed to take contempt proceedings against the accused (Najib).”

Leaping to his client’s defence, Shafee said Najib was not questioning the credentials of the judge but merely saying (he hoped) that comments about him by other politicians, especially his biggest critic, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, would finally stop.

“Perhaps my client meant that by getting rid of Mahathir, he would get a fair trial atmosphere,” Shafee said. “Tun M (Mahathir) declared my client a penyangak, a robber or thief. Nobody cited him for contempt. He seems to get away with it.”

Shafee asked Sri Ram to reconsider his decision to cite Najib for contempt.

It remains to be seen if the prosecution will go through with the application.

Hearing continues on June 3.

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