KUALA LUMPUR (April 23): The defence in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd-Tanore (1MDB-Tanore) trial will contest the 25 abuse of power and money-laundering charges levelled against former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Lead defence counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said that the charges, which he described as "all wrong" and "duplicitous", would be a huge part of the defence's submissions at the end of the prosecution's case as the six-year trial edges to a close.

"I don't want us to be accused of not raising this. The subject matter on all the charges will be a huge [part of our submissions] — that the charges are all wrong, duplicitous and multiplicitous," the senior defence counsel told the court on Tuesday.

Shafee added that various limbs were grouped together in single charges, when they should have been split as separate offences.

The whole issue arose during defence counsel Wan Azwan Aiman's cross-examination of the prosecution's 49th witness, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission investigating officer (MACC IO) Nur Aida Arifin. Wan Azwan had gone into the nitty-gritty of the first abuse of power charge Najib faces.

Najib in the Kuala Lumpur Courts Complex on Tuesday.

The counsel explained that the defence was trying to establish whether the IO had indeed investigated the four elements in the charge.

The first abuse of power charge revolves around Najib's purported actions from April 2009 to May 2011, which resulted in him getting gratifications of over RM60 million.

The charge is further broken down into four parts, beginning with Najib tabling a memorandum in April 2009 for Cabinet approval. The proposal concerned a government guarantee for the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA) to get domestic and foreign market loans of up to RM5 billion by way of Islamic medium-term notes. The TIA was the predecessor of 1MDB.

Judge says court to decide whether prosecution has proven its case

Deputy public prosecutor (DPP) Ahmad Akram Gharib then objected to the defence's line of questioning, saying that this particular part of the charge is in line with Section 23(2) of the MACC Act, where there is a presumption that Najib had abused his power.

"[The four parts] were not the action that created the gratifications. [They were actions] which attracted the presumption that [Najib] had abused his power," Akram argued.

Section 23(2) says that an officer of a public body shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, to use his office or position for any gratification, whether for himself, his relative or associate, when he makes any decision, or takes any action, in relation to any matter in which such an officer, or any relative or associate of his, has an interest, whether directly or indirectly.

The senior DPP also argued that these concerned questions of law ought to be taken up during submissions, as the MACC IO would not be able to answer what type of gratification Najib got from each of these actions.

Nur Aida was cross-examined by the defence on Tuesday.

Trial judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah told the parties to take the matter up during submissions, reminding that it is up to the court to make a determination whether the prosecution had proven elements of the charges, not the MACC IO.

"[The] determination of whether or not this has been proven, as it has been said time and again, is my call. I am supposed to make the decision whether these elements have been proven or not," he said.

Sequerah also noted that this is something technical, which the IO could not answer.

In this trial, Najib faces four counts of abuse of power for using his position as the then prime minister, finance minister, and chairman of 1MDB’s board of advisers to receive gratifications worth US$620 million (RM2.27 billion). He also faces 21 money-laundering charges.