Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak’s SRC International Sdn Bhd trial at the High Court today turned tense when the 13th defence witness, Latheefa Koya, and Najib’s lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah were visibly upset with each other.
The former Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner was irritated when Shafee asked about the investigations done by MACC on the RM4 billion that was allegedly sent to BSI bank in Switzerland, whereby the witness said she was not called to the trial to answer these type of questions.
“Am I being cross-examined here? I have been told that I was called here to help about the audio recordings. If you are asking me about the particular charge, I may not be able to assist,” she insisted.
Shafee: Have you been following this trial?
Latheefa: Not in detail, just in general.
Shafee: Were you aware that one of the allegations made was that RM4 billion was transferred to a bank in Switzerland. You surely would want to find out where did the RM4 billion go?
Latheefa: There is general information that I know. But the charge was made before I came to be chief commissioner.
Shafee: But as the chief commissioner at that time, surely you want to know?
“It was not just the RM4 billion; we are interested to know all of the money related to SRC, 1MDB, correlation to those and where those assets went. We are interested in asset recovery, whether it’s in Switzerland, the United States, or London, and we are in the process of recovering those monies,” she said.
To a question about the anti-graft agency’s investigation on the RM4 billion, Latheefa said she cannot divulge information on ongoing probes as it will compromise the MACC’s investigation.
Latheefa was also questioned by Shafee on MACC’s conduct in wiretapping individuals they were probing.
Shafee was referring to the nine audio recordings of alleged conversations involving Najib among others.
Ad hoc prosecutor Datuk V Sithambaram suggested to the court that Shafee seemed to be on a “fishing expedition” on the method used by MACC to intercept phone conversations.
“She told the court she doesn’t know if MACC was the one who tapped the phone calls.
“She is merely exercising her rights under Section 43(5) of the MACC Act and she cannot be compelled to disclose in any court proceedings how they intercept phone calls,” he said.
Earlier, Latheefa insisted she was bound by law to not disclose how anti-graft officers conduct wiretapping.
The court then allowed Latheefa to refuse Shafee’s question.
At this stage, Shafee, who seemed irritated with Latheefa’s line of answering, said: “Yang Arif, I am done with this witness. She is not answering my questions. Although she is my witness, I have established her attitude more than enough.
“We have the Attorney-General (Tan Sri Tommy Thomas, who resigned at end-February) who made a bold statement at the beginning of the trial about the money in Switzerland, but as the chief commissioner, the witness was not answering. I have no further questions,” he said, before the court released Latheefa from the witness stand.