KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 18): Presiding Court of Appeal judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah, who is the Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia Development Bhd’s (1MDB) criminal trial judge, could expect lengthy oral submissions at the end of the prosecution’s case, which begins on Monday (Aug 19).

Described as one of the most complex commercial cases and involving a number of countries and jurisdictions, the former prime minister is facing four abuse of power charges, and 21 money laundering charges with regard to 1MDB’s funds amounting RM2.278 billion that went to his Ambank accounts.

The prosecution closed its case on May 30 this year, after more than 230 days since trial began on Aug 28, 2019.

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A total of 50 prosecution witnesses had testified in the trial, including just returned 1MDB general counsel Jasmine Loo Ai Swan, and other former senior executives of 1MDB that included Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, Hazem Abdul Rahman, and Najib’s former aide Datuk Amhari Efendi Nazaruddin,.

Others included former 1MDB chairman Tan Sri Mohd Bakke Salleh, former finance minister II Datuk Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah, and former Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, who were among witnesses who testified for the prosecution.

Najib’s lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah had handed in more than 2,000 pages of written submissions, while the prosecution, led by Deputy Public Prosecutors Kamal Bahrin Omar and Ahmad Akram Gharib, had prepared more than 400 pages of written submissions.

Shafee is expected to make oral submissions in defence of the former prime minister first, before Sequerah on Monday, and this will be followed by replies from the prosecution.

The oral submissions are expected to take the whole of the week and could possibly stretch on until the end of the month.

Following that, Sequerah is expected to decide in the coming months whether there would be a prima facie case, or if Najib has a case to answer for all or any of the criminal charges that he is accused of, or to acquit the former prime minister.

Should the judge rule that the former prime minister’s defence needs to be called, then Najib would have three choices, namely to testify under oath where he would be cross-examined by the prosecution, or choose to remain silent, or testify from the accused dock where he will not require to be cross-examined.

Najib is presently serving the second year of his 12-year jail sentence and a RM210 million fine, after being found guilty of all seven counts of abuse of power, criminal breach of trust (CBT), and money laundering of RM42 million in SRC International Sdn Bhd funds, a former subsidiary of 1MDB.

During the SRC International case, Najib testified under oath before trial judge Datuk Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali, who found the former prime minister guilty on all counts, and the decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal and Federal Court, resulting in Najib's jail sentence, which commenced since Aug 23, 2022.

However, the former Pekan Member of Parliament, who is the highest ranked politician to be jailed in the country, had received a pardon and his jail sentence had been reduced to six years and a reduced fine of RM50 million imposed by the former Yang di Pertuan Agong.

Najib had however, been acquitted of abuse of power with regard to the 1MDB audit, a charge in which he was jointly charged with 1MDB’s former president and chief executive officer Arul Kanda Kandasamy.

As a result of this, in the days to come, proceedings in the High Court will be in focus with regard to this case, which has been described as "one of the world's greatest financial scandals" and declared by the United States Department of Justice as the "largest kleptocracy case to-date". 

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