KUALA LUMPUR (July 15): Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) officer Shuzairizman Shuib is expected to continue being cross-examined this morning in Datuk Seri Najib Razak's SRC International Sdn Bhd trial, which kicks off its 37th day.
Last week, the prosecution's 46th witness, who is an analyst with BNM's financial intelligence and enforcement department, denied he was the source of the leak in the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) messages or text messages purportedly depicting the exchange of messages between AmBank relationship manager Joanna Yu and fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho (or Jho Low).
During cross-examination by defence counsel Harvinderjit Singh, the witness said that although he extracted the messages from Yu's phone and those of two other AmBank relationship managers, Krystale Yap and Daniel Lee, he did not leak them to others.
"I only gave it [the data] to BNM and the MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission)," he said.
The Wall Street Journal had in 2015 released reports over the purported text BBM messages between Yu and Jho Low. The messages were also produced in the book Billion Dollar Whale: The man who fooled Wall Street, Hollywood and the world.
Yu's mobile phone had been seized during a raid at the AmBank Group building on July 6, 2015. At that time, she was a bank officer who handled Najib's personal accounts.
Shuzairizman told the High Court that, at the request of BNM investigating officer Ahmad Farhan Sharifuddin, he extracted data from the seized mobile device.
He then presented to the court a 500-page transcript of the BBM messages that he had retrieved from the phone, which was subsequently marked as evidence.
The ex-premier faces multiple counts of criminal breach of trust, money laundering and abuse of power, involving a total of RM42 million in funds from SRC, a former unit of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).
During cross-examination, the defence said it needed more time to look at the extracted transcript. The witness is expected to be examined on this again today.
The Edge is bringing the trial involving Malaysia’s former highest-ranking politician who led the country for nine years live.