Sulaiman: We haven't charged a former prime minister before

KUALA LUMPUR (October 4): In light of Najib's lead counsel Tan Sri Dr Muhammad Shafee Abdullah raising an issue regarding documents having been served in a CD and not in hard copy, that the documents could not be read, and that he had offered to foot the bill for the hard copy of the documents, lead prosecutor in the case Datuk Sulaiman Abdullah said that the issue is simply causing more expense for the nation. 

The Star reports that he said: "This government has no money, thanks to his client, and on top of it, they want to cause more expense to the nation.”

Also during the case mention, Sulaiman had also objected to an application by Dr Muhammad Shafee for Sulaiman to produce his letter of appointment by the Attorney General's Chambers.

"The whole idea in having a legal profession is everybody trusts each other, interact with each other on the basis of civility.

"I'm not asking him to produce his (Dr Muhammad Shafee) practising certificate. Next thing he will ask for the judge to produce his appointment letter," Sulaiman said.

The trial for Najib's criminal breach of trust, corruption and money laundering charges will depend heavily on documents, said the lead prosecutor for the trial, as quoted by the daily.

"We have got an enormous amount of documents. You cannot compare an ordinary sodomy case with a situation where an accused is charged with 'sodomising' the entire nation.

"We haven't charged a former prime minister before, nor for that amount of money involved. It all depends on bank transfers, documents, documents and documents," he told reporters after Najib's case mention at the High Court here on Thursday (Oct 4).