Court adjourns Najib’s SRC trial after defence lawyer Harvinderjit Singh calls in sick.
9.06am: Accused Najib Abdul Razak enters the court and takes a seat at the front row of the public gallery.
9.23am: Najib steps into the dock as proceedings begin.
9.30am: The hearing starts with the defence team making a verbal application to vacate today’s date.
Defence lawyer Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohammed tells the court that his co-counsel Harvinderjit Singh, who was supposed to continue with the cross-examination on former AmBank relationship manager Joanna Yu, is ill.
He also says lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah is occupied with a trial before another High Court judge retiring at the end of July, and thus needs all the cases before him to be disposed of by then.
“On that basis, we humbly seek Yang Arif’s indulgence for today’s date to be vacated and we can go on with the trial tomorrow,” says Wan Aizuddin.
Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali then queries the defence on whether they have any other lawyer who can take up the cross-examination of the witness.
Wan Aizuddin tells the court that lawyer Farhan Read has also been absent due to illness since yesterday, and that there was no instruction for the other members of the team to do so.
This met with no objection from the prosecution, with deputy public prosecutor V Sithambaram telling the court that they do not want to be unreasonable when a counsel has fallen sick.
According to Sithambaram, Harvinderjit contacted him at about 6.30am this morning to say that he was unwell.
He also apologises to the court as the prosecution’s other witnesses are not ready to be called in to testify.
“But if the court wants to be cautious, we ought to replace (today’s hearing) on Aug 9 as replacement date,” he says.
Sithambaram also tells Nazlan they should be able to complete the trial by August 16.
The judge then allows the application to vacate today’s hearing, and orders the court to be adjourned until 9am tomorrow.
Nazlan also says that should the defence lawyers be unwell tomorrow, arrangements must be made to either have cross-examination continued by any other member of the defence, or for the prosecution to bring in another witness.
Earlier reports:
July 23, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 42
July 22, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 41
July 18, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 40
July 17, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 39
July 16, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 38
July 15, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 37
July 11, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 36
July 10, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 35
July 9, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 34
July 8, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 33
July 3, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 32
July 3, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 31
July 1, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 30
June 20, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 29
June 19, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 28
June 18, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 27
June 17, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 26
June 14, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 25
June 13, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 24
June 12, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 23
June 11, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 22
June 10, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 21
May 28, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 20
May 27, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 19
May 15, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 18
May 14, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 17
May 9, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 16
May 8, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 15
May 7, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 14
May 7, Najib Fails in Second Bid to Remove Sri Ram as 1MDB Lead Prosecutor
May 7, Najib Signed Guarantee Letter for RM2B KWAP Loan to SRC, KWAP Rules Breached
May 6, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 13
May 2, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 12
May 2, RM1M Golden Handshake in Final Month as PM for Najib
Apr 30, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 11
Apr 29, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 10
Apr 29, Court Throws Out Najib’s Application to Strike Out 7 SRC Charges, Trial to Go On
Apr 25, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day Nine
Apr 24, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day Eight
Apr 24, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day Seven
Apr 22, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day Six
Apr 18, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day Five
Apr 17, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day Four
Apr 16, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day Three
Apr 15, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day Two
Apr 3, Najib Trial: Day One