Najib's case management postponed to Oct 31

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 4): Case management for the 32 graft-related charges against former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak involving 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) and a former subsidiary has been postponed to Oct 31.

The postponement is partly related to a request by Najib's defense led by Tan Sri Mohd Shafee Abdullah for the prosecution to prepare the pre-trial documents in hard copy format as proposed earlier.

This came as Najib received another CD containing documents pertaining to the charges earlier yesterday, which Shafee said contained some inaccessible document files.

The prosecution had previously submitted one CD containing the said documents to the defense. At the time, Shafee had requested for the prosecution to provide the documents in hard copy format for easier access.

"We are not asking for special treatment, but give us [the documents] in a proper format," said Shafee.

A war of words erupted — deputy public prosecutor Datuk Sulaiman Abdullah responded by saying the document submission was in accordance to Section 51(A) of the Criminal Procedure Code.

He also argued that the prosecution had proposed a pre-trial conference earlier, but the defense has not been forthcoming.

"There was total silence [by the defense on our request for pre-trial conference]," said Sulaiman.

However Shafee said there is no point to have the conference without full access to the documents.

In a nutshell, a pre-trail conference is a meeting of the parties to a case conducted prior to trial which could be held before the trial judge.

High Court Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali later instructed for the documents to be prepared in hard copy format within two weeks' time from today.

Concurrently, Justice Nazlan also set the pre-trial conference between both the prosecution and defense on Oct 25.

Additionally, the prosecution also requested Najib's case to be conducted in Putrajaya due to bigger facility space and because related materials, such as documents, are located there and otherwise need to be transferred to KL court complex.

The defense said it will reply to the request, while Justice Jazlan said the matter can be finalised during the pre-trial conference.

Najib is currently facing 32 charges over the misappropriation of over RM2 billion in 1MDB and RM42 million in its former unit SRC International Sdn Bhd.

Meanwhile, his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor was today slapped with 17 charges under Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act (AMLA) 2001 over RM7.1 million transferred into her personal bank account. — theedgemarkets.com

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