This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on May 15, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has fixed 52 days of hearing beginning Jan 6 next year for the joint trial of former premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak and former treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Dr Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah over six charges of criminal breach of trust  (CBT) involving RM6.64 billion of government funds for payments to the International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC).

The dates, fixed by Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali during case management yesterday, are Jan 6-9, Feb 3-5, 10-13 and 24-27, March 2-5 and 9-12, as well as April 6-9, 13-16, 20-23 and 27-30.

The judge said he wants to block the dates to ensure that the trial dates are fixed.

Last Thursday, he tentatively fixed the hearing to start in December after allowing the prosecution to vacate the previously set dates to accommodate the continued hearing of Najib’s ongoing RM42 million SRC International Sdn Bhd trial.

The IPIC case hearing will overlap with Najib’s joint trial with former 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) president and chief executive officer Arul Kanda Kandasamy over alleged tampering with the 1MDB audit report. Najib is also facing 25 counts of money laundering and abuse of power of 1MDB funds amounting to RM2.28 billion.

In the IPIC case, Najib and Mohd Irwan claimed trial on Oct 25 last year to six counts of misappropriating some RM6.64 billion of government funds. The offences were allegedly committed between Dec 21, 2016 and Dec 18, 2017.

Part of the funds has been slated for certain purposes including the management expenditure of Kuala Lumpur International Airport and subsidy and cash assistance reportedly under Budget 2017 allocation.

It has been reported previously that the monies were channelled into 1MDB instead to repay its debts including US$1.2 billion to Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund in April 2017.