KUALA LUMPUR, May 20 — The prosecution today applied to have former 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy, who is accused of tampering with the auditor-general’s report on the sovereign investment company, testify against his fellow accused Datuk Seri Najib Razak in the High Court.

Lead prosecutor Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram tendered the prosecution’s application under Section 63 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act to call Arul Kanda as its witness in the ongoing trial.

But Najib’s lead defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah asked Sri Ram the basis to call in Arul Kanda as a prosecution witness.

"I can inform now, but very broad grounds, I’m going to make this clear, I’m not going to confine myself to these grounds.

"This accused has information in relation to transactions with the other accused which will materially affect the outcome of the prosecution of that accused,” Sri Ram said, referring to Arul Kanda as the "accused” and Najib as the "other accused".

"In other words, he has information in his possession which is relevant to the charge against the other accused, in relation especially, in particular in relation to the meeting that was held in February, the events that preceded that meeting and the events that followed that meeting. So those are the areas in which we will be asking questions,” Sri Ram said.

Shafee said Najib’s legal team would be objecting to this application.

The trial before High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan will resume on May 30, with both the prosecution and Najib’s lawyers to put in their written submissions to the court on this application.

https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2022/05/20/prosecution-seeks-to-get-arul-kanda-to-testify-against-najib-in-1mdb-audit-report-tampering-trial/7817