1MDB-Tanore trial expected to resume on Thursday, Najib to be brought out of prison
Besides Thursday, the 1MDB-Tanore trial is also slated to continue on Aug 29 and 30, Sept 5 to 8, and other trial dates which are fixed until February 2023.
(The Edge Markets) – The 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB)-Tanore trial is expected to resume in the High Court on Thursday (Aug 25), and former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is expected to be brought out of the Kajang Prison to attend the trial.
Normally in criminal trials, the presence of the accused person is required during proceedings.
If this happens, an order to produce (OTP) would be issued by the court to the Prisons Department to secure his attendance.
Deputy public prosecutor (DPP) Mohd Mustafa P Kunyalam, when contacted by theedgemarkets.com, confirmed that the trial is slated to proceed on Thursday before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah.
“Hence, an OTP would likely be requested,” he said.
DPP Ahmad Akram Gharib also expects the trial to resume with the cross-examination of former Ministry of Finance deputy secretary-general (policy) Datuk Siti Zauyah Mohd Desa and lawyer Mark Lim, from 1MDB’s former legal firm Wong & Partners, to be done by the defence.
Najib, 69, began his 12-year jail sentence on Tuesday, with a RM210 million fine, after a five-member Federal Court bench led by Chief Justice (CJ) Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat maintained his conviction with regard to all seven charges in relation to former 1MDB subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd.
This is with regard to his abuse of power of the RM4 billion Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP) loans to SRC between August 2011 and March 2012, and three counts each of criminal breach of trust and money laundering of RM42 million of SRC funds between Dec 26, 2014 and Feb 10, 2015.
The apex court bench, in upholding the conviction, found that it was a straightforward case, and also ruled that the defence had failed to raise reasonable doubt as their defences were completely inconsistent and diametrically opposed to one another.
