News by Timothy Achariam

As both cases involve former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak as the accused, Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah had sought to vacate the 1MDB-Tanore trial for today as the defence is currently in the midst of making their oral submissions in the SRC case.

Explaining to Justice Nazlan Mohd Ghazali, appointed prosecutor Datuk V Sithambaram (pictured) said they did not need to call chief financial officer (CFO) See Yoke Peng as SRC director Datuk Suboh Md Yassin, who was a signatory for the company, had signed off on funds which were transferred out of SRC and eventually ended up in the personal accounts of Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak.

Appointed prosecutor Datuk V Sithambaram pointed out an oddity — that when Najib removed Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil as the chief executive officer (CEO) of SRC amid complaints about financial misconduct, he but still kept the latter as the mandate holder.

Making his oral submissions before Justice Nazlan Mohd Ghazali, lawyer Harvinderjit Singh surmised that the prosecution had the chance to call on SRC International Sdn Bhd chief financial officer (CFO) See Yoke Peng as a witness as it was her who verified all the signatures of the signatories before the funds were transferred out of SRC.

Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said out of the 57 new cases, 10 were imported while 47 were local.  Of the 47 local cases, 43 involved non-Malaysians while four were Malaysians.

The minister urged the public not to believe everything non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or politicians say about the matter.

The number of active cases today rose to 1,185 from 1,163 yesterday.

Replying to defence lawyer Tan Sri Shafee Abdullah, Shahrol said he trusted Jho Low because he believed the financier had absolute access to then prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak.

Former 1MDB chief executive officer Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi had told the High court today what PITA stood for after he was asked by defence lawyer Tan Sri Shafee Abdullah.

On Mahathir’s behalf, lawyer Haniff Khatri Abdulla is also seeking to invalidate the position of current Bersatu Secretary-General Datuk Sri Hamzah Zainudin. He is also seeking an investigation into the wrongful dismissal of former Secretary-General Datuk Marzuki Yahya without consulting the chairman of the party, which he claims is still Mahathir.