KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 8 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak is in for nearly a full year of court appearances, after the High Court fixed further hearing dates from February until October for his corruption trial involving 25 charges over the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.
High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah finalised the trial dates during case management today, due to possible overlaps in hearing dates from Najib’s other criminal trials related to the 1MDB global corruption scandal.
He fixed hearings for February 18 and 21, March 2 to 6, 9 to 13, 19 to 20, 23 to 27 and 30 to 31 inclusive of Fridays.
The trial will also take up the entire month of April, May 4 to 8, 11 to 15 and 18 to 22 inclusive of Fridays.
Sequerah also scheduled all of June until October inclusive of Fridays for 1MDB hearings to take place.
On trial dates that fall on Fridays when Muslims must perform mandatory prayers, Sequerah said proceedings would be adjourned earlier at noon.
As for the January 13 to 16 dates that had previously been fixed for the trial, Sequerah said he decided to vacate these for Najib’s 1MDB audit tampering report trial, following his discussions with High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan who is presiding over the case.
Later, Najib’s lawyer Rahmat Hazlan informed the court that the new dates could clash with lead defence counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah’s other ongoing cases such as the Cradle Fund CEO murder trial at the Shah Alam High Court that is set to resume in May.
Sequerah then asked the defence to write to the respective High Court judges requesting for their trial dates to be vacated to give Najib’s main 1MDB trial precedence.
On Monday, Najib’s separate corruption case involving former 1MDB unit SRC International Sdn Bhd’s RM42 million funds resumed, with Najib testifying as the first witness after his defence was called in November.
The 1MDB trial has also been named the Tanore case, after the company Tanore Finance Corporation that allegedly funnelled illegal funds to Najib.
In the 1MDB trial, Najib is facing a total of 25 charges, namely four counts of abusing his position for his own financial benefit totalling almost RM2.3 billion and the resulting 21 counts of money-laundering.
When the 1MDB trial restarts in February, Najib’s lawyers are expected to resume cross-examination of 1MDB former chief executive Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, who is the ninth prosecution witness.
The 1MDB hearing kicked off on August 28 last year and has gone on for more than 30 days with nine prosecution witnesses testifying so far.
