News by Timothy Achariam

Last month, Najib’s defence, led by Tan Sri Shafee Abdullah, had made an application before Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali to allow a Dr Steven Strach from Australia to verify these documents which contain Najib’s signatures and to be called as an expert witness.

Mounting political uncertainties are expected to exert selling pressure on the local bourse, which is already clouded by economic concerns particularly after the COVID-19 virus outbreak.

Azlan Shah Jeffril, 49, whose company Profound Radiance Sdn Bhd was appointed by the ministry to run and manage one-stop centres (OSCs) for foreign visa applicants in a few countries, testified that a sum of RM2 million he had given to Zahid personally was for charity work and political donation.

As prosecution witness Junaith Asharab Md Shariff was deemed to have contradicted his statements in court, Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah allowed deputy public prosecutor Gan Peng Kun to treat Junaith as hostile and to cross-examine him over discrepancies in his statement.

Chew said he would not have proposed the political donation had Zahid not been the then DPM and minister of home affairs.

MACC investigator assistant commissioner Mohd Nasharudin Amir, who was the investigating officer in former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1MDB case, was slated to be the seventh witness for the defence in this trial. However, this morning lead defence lawyer Tan Sri Shafee Abdullah had informed Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali that the witness was uncooperative and had declined to be interviewed by the defence prior to taking the stand.

"... the board had meetings about the company's plans, but these plans were never executed."

The defendants, most of whom are former Minister of Women, Family and Community Development Tan Sri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil’s family members, are accused of misappropriating and wrongly using RM118 million out of the RM250 million loan granted.

This was revealed by Dr Uzailee Abdul Latiff, a former Finance Ministry deputy secretary-general who was in charge of procurement at the time, who was testifying in the graft trial of former Home Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

"This meeting was an unofficial meeting on the 11th of January… Najib, former Foreign Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman, former Malaysian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Professor Datuk Syed Omar Alsagoff and myself attended the meeting," the ex-minister said.