KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 18 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s criminal trial for the misuse of 1Malaysia Development Berhad’s (1MDB) RM2 million-odd funds was cut short this morning to allow the Pekan MP to attend a meeting with other political leaders to decide on a new prime minister candidate.

Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah sought permission from High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah to have the morning session end earlier as his client needed to attend a meeting at 11am.

"They are meeting to decide who would be new prime minister, a very critical meeting, because it is coming to a close, finale.

"So my client, he is adviser to BN, his attendance together with Datuk Seri Zahid and Ismail Sabri is compulsory together with the rest of party leaders that have to attend and make a decision today, and decide on certain name to be submitted for purposes of selection,” Shafee told the court at about 9.50am.

Shafee was referring to Umno president and Barisan Nasional chairman Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob. Ismail Sabri has been touted to be Umno and BN’s choice for nomination as the next prime minister.

Shafee asked for the trial to be stopped at 10.30am or 10.45am to enable Najib to be present at 11am at the World Trade Centre.

The judge said he was willing to allow a window of time, but said the trial must continue after Najib’s meeting and asked how long the meeting would take. To this, Shafee indicated it was not possible to say exactly when the meeting would end.

The judge said the trial cannot be adjourned the whole day; however he allowed the application and said the trial will pause at 10.45am but will resume at 2.30pm.

"I can accommodate the meeting but we need to continue,” Sequerah stressed.

At about 10.40am, just as the trial was to stop temporarily, the judge made it clear that he was only allowing the adjournment due to the country’s current situation.

"Can I just state for the record, for avoidance of doubt, that I’m allowing this request by the accused for this particular meeting only because of the peculiar circumstances that our country finds itself in at this point of time, and I suppose the importance of the meeting in achieving some resolution.

"So it’s only because of that, I don’t want to give the impression that other meetings, applications for other events would be allowed, it’s only this particular one because of the current situation,” Sequerah said.

After confirming that the meeting that Najib would attend is a meeting held physically, the judge said he hoped that all standard operating procedures as precautions against Covid-19 would be followed.

"I don’t want something to arrive from this meeting and cause other disruptions in the trial, you know what I mean,” Sequerah said

Shafee assured the judge that strict SOPs were in place when he went to see Najib and Zahid previously.

 Shafee also agreed that the trial time be adjusted to accommodate the disruption and suggested ending the hearing at 5pm later instead of 4.30pm.

Najib’s lawyers are expected to continue cross-examining the 10th prosecution witness Mohd Hazem Abd Rahman in the afternoon session.