‘TIN KOSONG’ ANWAR TURNS MALAYSIA TOPSY-TURVY – SHAFEE, EMBOLDENED BY ZAHID’S DNAA, NOW CONFIDENT NAJIB CAN BE ACQUITTED EVEN IN 1MDB CASE – DESPITE 1MDB TRIAL ALREADY IN ADVANCE STAGE – WHAT A MOCKERY ANWAR’S PAKATAN-UMNO UNITY GOVT IS MAKING OF MALAYSIA

Business, Politics | September 12, 2023 5:48 pm by | 0 Comments

Shafee says confident Najib can be acquitted even in 1MDB trial; defends Zahid’s DNAA

PUTRAJAYA — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s lead defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah today expressed confidence that his client would be acquitted by the courts even in the latter’s trial over the misappropriation of 1Malaysia Development Berhad’s (1MDB) RM2.28 billion.

In responding to a question on whether something similar to Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s Yayasan Akalbudi trial could happen to Najib, Shafee said he does not know, but then proceeded to defend the prosecution’s decision to discontinue the trial involving 47 charges against Zahid.

Shafee was responding to a question from a reporter, on whether former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s acquittal of four power abuse charges last month and the discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA) last week in Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s Yayasan Akalbudi trial would mean that “Najib’s case also have some possibility to have some chance”.

The question did not specify which of Najib’s cases was being referred to. Najib, who is also a former finance minister and former Umno president, is facing three outstanding criminal cases.

Shafee claimed that a committee within the Attorney General’s Chambers (AG) had allegedly given the view in a memorandum that Zahid’s case should not have been prosecuted, suggesting that it was in the interests of justice to discontinue the trial to remove an alleged victimisation of Zahid through the case.

“The current AG decided to remove that victimisation by withdrawing the case. Isn’t that in the interests of justice?” Shafee asked when met outside the courtroom at the Palace of Justice here.

Earlier today, the Court of Appeal had struck out the prosecution’s appeal against the High Court’s acquittal of Najib and former 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy in a trial over the alleged tampering of the auditor-general’s audit report on 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) before it could be sent to Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee.

In a further response to the question regarding Najib in light of Zahid’s DNAA and Muhyiddin’s acquittal, Shafee claimed that the other remaining trials involving Najib do not have a case.

“What is going to happen with Datuk Seri Najib? We have always held the view that there’s no case in 1MDB, no case in the audit case, no case in the MOF case, in fact there is no case in the SRC case,” he said, claiming that the Federal Court did not give Najib the opportunity to be heard in the SRC case.

“We feel that Datuk Seri Najib’s case has got a lot of prospects for various other processes, such as pardons, United Nations process and so on,” he said, referring to Najib’s SRC case which has resulted in the latter’s imprisonment.

“So it depends what the courts want to do, we feel very confident we will get an acquittal even without defence called, even in the 1MDB case.

“But what the attorney general wants to do, it is his discretion, and I must say what the AG has done in Zahid’s case is correct, 100 per cent, and they have provided a very lengthy reason, so I don’t think the Bar or anybody else should complain or politicise the matter,” he said.

Najib, who is currently a prisoner, was seen in the courtroom today, while his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor also attended the court proceedings while seated next to him in the public gallery in the courtroom.

Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor attended the court proceedings with her husband Datuk Seri Najib Razak. — Picture by Miera Zulyana

Najib has a total of five criminal cases, with the first case involving the misappropriation of 1MDB’s former subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd’s RM42 million and which saw Najib found guilty by the High Court and has conviction upheld by the Court of Appeal and Federal Court.

Najib has been serving his 12-year jail term since August 23 last year, which is more than a year ago.

As for the 1MDB audit trial case which Najib was facing together with former 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy, the High Court had on March 3 acquitted the two. The prosecution had on March 9 filed an appeal against their acquittal, but the appeal was struck out today due to failure to meet filing deadlines according to the law.

Najib’s ongoing 1MDB trial involving RM2.28 billion of 1MDB funds will resume at the High Court on September 18, where Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) analyst Adam Ariff Mohd Roslan is expected to resume testifying as the 47th prosecution witness. This trial has been going on since August 28, 2019.

Najib’s joint trial with former Treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah involving six criminal breach of trust charges over RM6.6 billion of government funds has yet to start.

Najib’s trial over three money-laundering charges involving RM27 million of SRC funds also has yet to start.

MALAY MAIL