KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 19 — The prosecution had wrongly accused former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak of abusing his power to get RM60 million for himself in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) trial, as he did not even go to the bank, his lawyer told the High Court today.

In the 1MDB trial, Najib is facing four power of abuse charges, including of committing the offence of using his position — as prime minister, finance minister and 1MDB advisory board chairman — between February 24, 2011 and June 14, 2011 at AmIslamic Bank’s Jalan Raja Chulan branch for a gratification of RM60,629,839.43 for himself.

But Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah highlighted that the prosecution had accused his client of committing the offence of abusing his power at AmIslamic Bank, instead of accusing him of committing the offence at any other places such as at the finance minister’s office or the prime minister’s office or any places related to his 1MDB advisory board chairman position.

"So this offence, they categorically said, my client committed at AmIslamic Bank, namely he abused power at AmIslamic Bank.

"But Yang Arif, we know from the prosecution’s various testimonies of the witnesses, what transpired at AmIslamic Bank are money received into my client’s account. That is their case. So what they are saying is the receipt of the gratification is the offence,” he said.

But Shafee questioned the prosecution’s charge and said it went against what happened in other cases such as the SRC International Sdn Bhd case, noting: "My client has said it, he hasn’t even been to the bank.”

"So Yang Arif, contrary to SRC, contrary to all cases, the prosecution has actually crafted this charge in a very convoluted fashion, and they got it wrong,” he claimed, questioning the prosecution’s charge which accused Najib of abusing his power at the bank instead of receiving gratification or money at the bank.

Shafee claimed the prosecution's charge was confusing and that Najib "never saw the building of AmBank” except maybe when passing by it.

"He's never been to AmBank, how does he abuse power at AmBank on that date? So this totally confuses us, prejudices us in our defence.”

All four charges alleged that Najib had committed the offences of abusing his power for gratification totalling RM2.27 billion at AmIslamicBank's Jalan Raja Chulan branch.

The first power abuse charge had listed four limbs or four actions that Najib allegedly took in abusing his power, and the second and third charge each had two limbs.

Earlier, Shafee argued that all four power abuse charges against Najib are defective as there is allegedly duplicity, multiplicity and ambiguity.

He also argued that this was prejudicial to Najib.

Shafee argued that the alleged defects in the four power abuse charges make these charges illegal and wrong, and that Najib should be acquitted and "walk away free”.

He argued that the prosecution should have separated the different limbs under the four charges into 10 charges so that Najib could defend himself better.

"So what we are saying, there should be 10 charges, not four charges. We are not asking for our client to be convicted of more offences. No, we're saying this is a fair trial, you have to specify, and if you have broken it into 10 charges, it would show the whole onus of the prosecution's case,” he said.

Today is the first day of the submissions stage at the end of the prosecution's case at the 1MDB trial, which is also when lawyers for Najib and the prosecution would present their final arguments before the High Court decides whether he should be ordered to enter his defence.

Earlier this morning, Shafee said Najib's legal team has filed about 17 volumes of written submissions covering about 2,500 pages.

The 1MDB trial before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah will continue tomorrow afternoon.