KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 18): The High Court here had today ordered the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) audit report tampering trial involving former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and ex-1MDB chief executive officer Arul Kanda Kandasamy to begin today.
High Court Judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan said he has considered the application by Najib's lawyer to postpone the trial and the application is dismissed.
On Friday (Nov 15), Najib's lawyers, led by Harvinderjit Singh, had applied to defer today's trial as the former premier's legal team needed time to prepare for his defence in the SRC International Sdn Bhd trial, which is slated to continue on Dec 3.
The prosecution as well as Arul Kanda's lawyer Datuk N Sivananthan both objected to Najib's application.
However, Najib's lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah informed the court that he will continue to ask for the postponement of the trial due the amended charge made by the prosecution.
Shafee argued the amendments were extensive in nature and the former premier may not understand the amended charge, as the defence only got to know about it on Friday, while his client only found out about the matter after returning from the by-election in Tanjung Piai, Johor, held last weekend, as he did not receive the documents containing the amended charge.
"Section 159 of the Criminal Procedure Code stipulates that if a charge is framed and alteration is made, the defence can apply for a postponement in order for the defence to better prepare the case and not prejudice our client," he said.
The senior lawyer said half of his legal team, who are involved in the 1MDB-Tanore case, are not here for the audit report tampering trial.
"I cannot afford a fragmentation as it would prejudice our client and there is not enough time for us to prepare this case," he said, adding that at the present moment they are at three fronts (the SRC case, the 1MDB-Tanore case and now the 1MDB audit report tampering case).
Following this, Shafee asked for the trial to be deferred for two weeks.
Senior deputy public prosecutor Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram objected to the second bid to postpone the trial as he said Najib's 1MDB-Tanore trial has some resemblance to this case.
"He (Shafee) is familiar as he handled the 1MDB trial. Furthermore, the majority of the witnesses called are formal witnesses to testify that Najib is a public officer, and also a witness from the Companies Commission of Malaysia," he said.
Sri Ram added that it was not fair to say that Najib may not understand the charge as he was the PM of this country.
"Saying he cannot understand it is not fair to his intellect," the former Federal Court judge said.
Meanwhile, Arul Kanda's counsel Sivananthan said the defence expected the changes to the paragraph and it is not an issue with his client.
With this, Justice Zaini ordered the trial to proceed, and the prosecution at present has called three witnesses.
For more stories on the 1MDB audit report tampering trial, click here.