By Aathi Shankar
Datuk Seri Najib Razak will know on Monday morning, November 11, on whether he will be freed from or called to enter his defence for the corruption trial involving the SRC International Sdn Bhd.
“If there is no prima facie, the accused will be acquitted. But if prima facie is found on any of the charges, the defence will be called,” said Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali when announcing the date of his imminent decision.
Najib has been slapped with 7 corruption charges involving SRC International’s RM42 million.
The charges were 3 each for criminal breach of trust (CBT) under Section 409 of the Penal Code and money laundering under Section 4 of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities (AMLA) Act 2001, and for abuse of power under Section 23 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Act (MACC) 2009.
The Pekan MP had allegedly committed the offences at AmIslamic Bank Bhd in Jalan Raja Chulan and the Prime Minister’s Office in Putrajaya between Aug 17, 2011, and Feb 10, 2015.
Then premier, Najib was also the advisor emeritus and finance minister at the material time when the alleged embezzlement of SRC funds took place.
For the past two days, the prosecution and defence had made their oral submissions for the Najib-SRC Trial, which began on Wednesday, April 3 this year and concluded on Tuesday, August 27.
The 57-day trial saw 57 witnesses giving their testimonies before presiding Mohd Nazlan.
The prosecution was led by hired lawyer Datuk V. Sithambaram.
Lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah and lawyers, Harvinderjit Singh and Farhan Read made the oral submissions for the defence today.
The prosecution has offered 66 witnesses to defence to call up if Najib was called to enter his defence, and Sithambaram told Shafee that most of the witnesses were contactable.
During the trial, the last 57th witness, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigating officer Senior Assistant Commissioner Rosli Hussain said that the SRC investigation was completed in 2015.
In his investigations papers, Rosli had recommended SRC’s former chief executive officer (CEO) Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, its ex-director Datuk Suboh Mohd Yassin, former Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd managing director Datuk Shamsul Anwar Sulaiman and its finance director Datuk Abdul Aziz Ismail to be charged for the crime.
Rosli also revealed a charge sheet pertaining to SRC corruption scandal was prepared against Najib in 2015 before MACC had even recorded the former premier’s statement.
Shamsul Anwar was the other co-accused in the charge sheet, which was published by British mercenary Clare Rewcastle Brown’s blog, Sarawak Report.
During cross-examination, Rosli concurred with Shafee that Najib’s statement should have been taken before a charge sheet can be drafted.
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