Shafee: Charges placed against my client done in hurried fashion

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 4): Tan Sri Dr Muhammad Shafee Abdullah (pictured) is of the view that investigations against former premier Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had not been completed before he was charged, reported The Star today.

"We have a very strong defence. I'm also suspicious of the fact that these charges placed against my client have been done in a hurried fashion because I can see evidence of the investigations not being completed.

"I'm confident that we will be able to defend the case very effectively," The Star reported Muhammad Shafee saying today.

Muhammad Shafee was speaking to the media outside the courthouse after Najib's case mention before High Court Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali over three counts of criminal breach of trust, one charge of abuse of power and three counts of money laundering involving SRC International Sdn Bhd’s funds of RM42 million.

The English daily also reported Muhammad Shafee saying that the prosecution would have to prove that his client knew that he had received money that were proceeds of a crime.

"This is for the prosecution to prove. So far they (the prosecution) have not shown this in their charges," he said.

Muhammad Shafee was also asked about whether controversial businessman Low Taek Jho, aka Jho Low, would be called to court if he was available

"I hope Jho Low turns up because we may find out the truth.

"We have millions of documents but we don't have a human being to give evidence so that they can give meaning and context to the documents,” he said.

Meanwhile, case management for the 32 graft-related charges against Najib 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 Muhammad Shafee 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.