KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 24 —The prosecution today applied to the High Court to change the amount of money that former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is on trial for in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) case, due to recent court testimony from witnesses.
Najib's lead defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah however objected to these amendments.
This morning, deputy public prosecutor Kamal Baharin Omar said the prosecution wishes to amend three out of the 25 charges faced by Najib in the 1MDB trial.
The prosecution wanted to amend one of Najib's four power abuse charges under an anti-corruption law, and to amend two of Najib's 21 money laundering charges.
For the fourth power abuse charge, the prosecution wanted to amend the amount from RM49,930,985.70 to RM44,570,920.70.
Based on Malay Mail's calculations, this will result in the total 1MDB-linked funds that Najib is accused of having committed power abuse in four charges as decreasing from RM2,282,937,678.41 (RM2.28 billion) to RM2,277,577,613.41 (RM2.277 billion).
As for the 21 money laundering charges, the prosecution wanted to amend the 10th money laundering charge which Najib was accused of committing by transferring money from unlawful activities, by reducing the amount involved from RM652.6 million to RM515,666,277.51 (RM515.67 million).
The prosecution also applied to amend the 21st money laundering charge involving the transfer of funds, by reducing the amount of RM12,436,711.87 to RM11,411,646.34.
Under the 21 counts of money laundering that Najib is accused of, five counts involve transferring of funds which currently comes up to a total of RM2,196,786,711.87 or over RM2.19 billion.
If the prosecution is allowed to amend two of the charges, the total amount transferred under the five counts of money laundering would be a lower amount of RM2,058,827,923.85 or over RM2.05 billion.
Kamal Baharin said the amendments to the charges are due to the testimony by the 47th prosecution witness Adam Ariff Mohd Roslan who carried out the analysis on the money trail of 1MDB funds that entered Najib’s personal accounts.
Kamal Baharin said the prosecution was also seeking amendments to the charges as well as testimony by the 48th prosecution witness Assistant Commissioner of Police Foo Wei Min who was the police officer in charge of money laundering investigations on the alleged flow of funds from 1MDB through Tanore Finance Corp — a company owned by Low Taek Jho’s associate Eric Tan Kim Loong — to Najib’s accounts.
This was due to Foo’s analysis of the funds using the First In First Out (FIFO) methodology.
Kamal Baharin’s application to amend Naijb’s three charges were made under the Federal Constitution’s Article 145(3), along with Section 376 and Section 158 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
When applying for the three amendments, Kamal Baharin argued that the amendments should be allowed under Section 158 of the Criminal Procedure Code as it follows the principles of the law stated.
Under Section 158 which grants the courts the power to amend charges, any court may alter any charge or add to any charge at any time before the court pronounces its judgment.
Kamal Baharin also argued that Najib as the accused person will not be prejudiced by the amendments which only involve the amount of money involved.
Shafee said Najib's defence team will need time to prepare a reply, and will be able to argue before the court tomorrow on objections to the proposed amendments to the three charges.
“Although the prosecution seems to suggest simply that it only affects the amount, the quantum, but as Yang Arif can appreciate, the tracing of the money trail has got a lot of bearing on the amount, and we have been preparing in relation to the amount.
“And we have been doing our own tracing based on what the prosecution has provided and also other documents that we have discovered," he said.
“So we want to see whether the angle of defence we have taken and hardened up needs to be changed, and whether the need to change in fact prejudicially affects our defence, so as such, Yang Arif, I ask for time until tomorrow for us to respond," he said.
