The RM2.28 billion case.
Former prime minister Najib Razak’s 1MDB trial will finally begin on May 14, with the High Court setting new dates after being informed that the previous trial dates were taken by Najib’s RM42 million SRC International case.
The trial will take place for 14 days beginning May 14, with the dates being May 14, 15 and 17; May 28, 29, and 31; June 10, 11, 12, 13, 14; as well as June 18, 20 and 21.
Najib’s lawyer Harvinderjit Singh, 66, told the court that the original dates of the trial set from April 15 to May 3, would overlap with another case faced by Najib involving misappropriation of funds from SRC International Sdn Bhd.
Harvinder informed the court that the hearing for the SRC case had been fixed beginning April 3, and would resume from April 15 to May 10.
“As a result, it leaves us with three weeks in May, which is between 13th and 17th and the last week of May, which are the trial dates for Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah’s case.
“I would personally prefer to start with Shafee’s case first as the case is much lighter and was registered earlier,” Harvinder said.
Judge Collin, however, refused and said the court wished to proceed with the 1MDB case first, and set the trial dates for the 1MDB case on the dates originally set for Shafee’s case.
The money laundering case faced by Shafee was previously set on May 14, 15 and 17; as well as May 28, 29 and 31.
The court then set April 16 for case management to fix the hearing dates of Shafee’s case.
Prosecution chief Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram did not object to the matter.
“There will be no more case management for 1MDB,” Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah said.
Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib informed the court that the prosecution team had given Najib’s defence team all the relevant documents for the trial.
“We will serve the witness statements by the end of this month,” he added.