Najib spent RM3.2 million to purchase gifts for the wife of ex-Qatar PM.
9.55am: Proceedings will begin later than scheduled as Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali is presiding over several other court cases this morning.
10.34am: Najib Razak enters the court and takes a seat in the front row of the public gallery.
Also seen in court awaiting the start of proceedings is the former prime minister’s lead counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah and other defence lawyers, as well as Attorney-General Tommy Thomas and deputy public prosecutors who form the prosecution team.
10.43am: Proceedings begin, with Najib entering the dock.
Defence lawyer Farhan Read will cross-examine MACC investigating officer Rosli Hussain.
Farhan informs judge Nazlan that he is conducting the cross-examination because his fellow counsel, Harvinderjit Singh, is unable to come to court today.
10.52am: Farhan asks Rosli about RM32 million that was transferred into Najib’s accounts.
10.56am: They are going through Najib’s credit card transactions.
10.59am: Rosli agrees that the RM32 million was transferred into Najib’s accounts, and says it was from Permai Bina Raya’s account.
11.20am: Farhan asks Rosli about the money Najib had given to Jamek trading. Farhan suggests to Rosli that this was used for charitable works. Rosli agrees but said it wasn’t part of his investigation.
11.25am: Rosli says he did not investigate payments Najib had made for charitable contributions such as payments made out to Yayasan charitable foundations.
Farhan then asks Rosli if he would agree with him that the replacement of a water tank in one of Najib’s houses was a necessity. Rosli says he was not sure.
11.35am: Rosli says he cannot determine if the wardrobe and the water tank Najib purchased for his house is for luxury or necessity as he had only investigated transactions concerning his case and nothing else.
11.40am: Farhan then asks Rosli about Najib’s purchases in Italy using his credit card. Farhan asks if he knows Swiss jeweller De Grisogono and whether he knew what Najib purchased there. Rosli says he didn’t know because he didn’t go there.
Farhan suggests that Najib had bought gifts there for a leader close to him. Rosli replies that Najib had admitted to that when he had his statement taken at the MACC.
According to Rosli, Najib had spent a total of RM3.2 million in August 2014 in Italy to buy gifts for the former prime minister of Qatar.
“That was what he claimed,” says Rosli.
Farhan then produces a new document in the court, which is a copy of an appreciation letter purportedly from the wife of a former Qatar prime minister addressed to Najib’s wife Rosmah Mansor.
However, Rosli says that he had never seen the letter before, nor that Rosmah had mentioned about it when they took her statement during the investigation stage.
11.50am: Farhan suggests that Najib had only personally used 1.9% of the total expenditure, to which Rosli snaps back: “That is your opinion.”
Farhan: Does this show that Najib doesn’t have the intention to cheat or defraud?
Rosli: I disagree.
Shafee takes over cross-examination from Farhan.
11.55am: Shafee asks Rosli about former SRC International director Suboh Md Yassin’s testimony in court on the 16 signatures which he claimed were forged by former SRC International CEO Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil. The signatures were on Rentas transaction forms.
12pm: Rosli says Suboh initially agreed that those were his signatures when he was shown them.
12.25pm: Shafee’s line of questioning is on MACC’s degree of independence in relation to the commission’s taking statements from Suboh.
Shafee: I am not making judgment, in MACC, wallahuallam (Allah knows).
Rosli: The MACC is independent.
The 57th witness asserts that the recording of statements from Suboh, who had returned from Indonesia when the statements were taken last year, was so independent that the MACC investigation officer himself was not present during the recording of the statements at Pullman Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.
“I did not disturb, manage and talk to (Suboh) during the recording of the statement,” Rosli maintains.
Nazlan allows the proceedings to adjourn for lunch and Friday prayer.
3.10pm: Court resumes with Rosli taking the stand and Shafee continuing his cross-examination.
They begin by going through SRC’s subsidiary companies.
Rosli says he did not know who the signatories of the subsidiary companies were, adding no investigations were carried out into the signatures on documents.
3.15pm: Rosli disagrees with Shafee’s question that Faisal never implicated Najib.
Rosli is referring to the two times that the MACC recorded the statement of the now missing Faisal in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Oct 17 and another day later that month, in 2015.
Shafee: If I say that Nik Faisal did not implicate Najib at all?
Rosli: I disagree.
DPP Sithambaram then stands up and objects to Shafee’s line of questioning as it is speculative and would just elicit speculative answers.
Sithambaram also says that the objection is because the questioning goes into the statement recorded from Faisal, who is currently missing.
Kuala Lumpur High Court judge agrees and tells Shafee to reword the question.
3.30pm: Shafee asks Rosli if he investigated whether money came from the Saudi royal family?
Rosli says he did not investigate whether it’s true or not as he felt it was not relevant to the case.
Shafee: Najib, in his belief when he spent the money, he thought that the money was donations from the Saudi royal family?
Rosli: That’s his belief.
3.35pm: Sithambaram interjects, saying that the witness cannot speak about Najib’s state of mind.
Shafee, however, says the prosecution must prove that Najib knew that the money was from illegal sources.
Shafee then moves on with the questioning, suggesting that Faisal was dishonest with the board of directors. Rosli says, to his knowledge, Faisal never reported to the board of directors.
3.45pm: Rosli tells the court that he did not send any banking documents acquired in his probe of SRC for signature analysis at the Chemistry Department.
According to his testimony, the officer says that he did not see the need to do so as there was no report lodged or any allegation made on possible forgery of signatures in the case.
4.25pm: Shafee stops cross-examining the witness and tells Nazlan that he has to go to judge Collin’s court for 1MDB’s case management.
Sithambaram proposes for the cross-examination to continue next Wednesday, subject to Collin’s agreement.
Sithambaram tells Nazlan that they will check with Collin first and get back to him. Nazlan asks to continue after.
4.35pm: Nazlan’s court is adjourned.
Najib is seated in the public gallery in judge Collin’s court.
Senior ad-hoc prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram is in court with Shafee.
4.40pm: Sithambaram tells the judge that they have not completed the cross-examination. He asks for half a day to complete the prosecution’s case for SRC.
Collin says he would like to kickstart the 1MDB trial on Tuesday afternoon once they complete the SRC case in the morning.
Shafee asks Collin again if they could start on September 3 or sometime next week as he has to go through the documents.
4.45pm: Sri Ram says his first two witnesses’ testimonies will be short. He suggests that the case starts on Wednesday morning.
Collin asks if formal witnesses will be available, and Sri Ram says yes.
The judge agrees to start the trial on Wednesday morning at 9.30am.
Court adjourns.
4.55pm: Shafee and Sithambaram return to Nazlan’s court to inform him of the decision and set the dates to wrap up the cross-examination of the last witness.
Sithambaram tells Nazlan that Collin is willing to vacate Tuesday to allow for SRC’s case to be wrapped up and 1MDB will begin on Wednesday morning.
Nazlan allows for this arrangement.
Earlier reports:
Aug 22, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 56
Aug 20, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 55
Aug 19, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 54
Aug 14, SRC Trial Postponed as Najib Down with Sore Eyes
Aug 13, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 52
Aug 9, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 51
Aug 7, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 50
Aug 6, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 49
Aug 5, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 48
Aug 1, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 47
July 31, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 46
July 29, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 45
July 25, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 44
July 24, Najib’s SRC Trial: Day 43 Vacated
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