Najib “being stubborn” and should have entered the dock as he is the accused.
Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak today refused to enter the dock meant for the accused at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court during the case management for his 25 criminal charges related to 1MDB.
Instead, the Pekan MP took a seat on a chair beside the dock and did not move into the dock, even after being asked politely to do so by a police officer on duty who approached him upon the prosecution’s order.
According to Malaysiakini, deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib said that Najib was “being stubborn” and should have entered the dock.
“At first I did not realise that Najib was not sitting at the dock, as I was facing the judge. But (lead prosecutor) Gopal Sri Ram noticed when he turned around and told me about it.
“So I told the police officer on duty to ask him (Najib) to get into the dock, and I thought he had adhered to the police officer’s order.
“Only when the proceeding was almost over that I noticed that he still did not (enter the dock),” Akram was quoted aqs saying.
He said Najib should have complied with the police’s request.
“He is an accused person (orang kena tuduh) and not a person being summoned (orang kena saman),” he said.
A summoned person (OKS) usually sits on a chair next to the dock when appearing before the court.
Ahmad said police could have taken action to force Najib to sit in the dock, but that they decided not to stir up a fuss as the proceeding was only for a short period of time.
During the proceeding, Sessions Court Judge Azura Alwi set Nov 27 for Najib’s 1MDB cases to be mentioned in the Kuala Lumpur High Court.
She had earlier been informed by Sri Ram that High Court Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali had agreed for the case to be transferred there from the Sessions Court.
She also heard from Sri Ram that the prosecution still has 20 percent of documents for the money-laundering case and 15 percent documents for the graft case to be served to the defence.
On Sept 20, Najib was charged with 21 counts of money-laundering involving RM2.08 billion, and four counts of abusing his position to obtain RM2.28 billion from 1MDB.