PAUL Stadlen, a media adviser to former prime minister Najib Razak, was not charged in absentia yesterday with money-laundering amounting to RM15 million, said deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib, adding that prosecutors instead obtained a warrant of arrest against the Briton.

Akram, who prosecuted Najib’s lawyer Mohd Hafarizam Harun for similar charges today, said yesterday’s proceedings were meant to obtain an arrest warrant for Stadlen who left the country soon after the May 9 elections.

He informed the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court today, after Hafarizam claimed trial that the two separate charges against Stadlen were registered at the Kuala Lumpur magistrates’ court yesterday.

He also told justice Azman Ahmad that the magistrate issued an arrest warrant. 

“If he is found and made to appear in court, there is a big chance that his case will be jointly tried with Hafarizam,” Akram said.

“We registered (the charges) in court and we obtained an arrest warrant. It’s just a registration of charges in order to get an arrest.

“With the registration, the arrest warrant and forwarding of the warrant to Interpol, the procedures to detect and detain Stadlen are now underway.”

In the first charge, Stadlen was accused of ordering a series of payments through 27 transactions, which were proceeds from illegal activities amounting to RM8.11 million from an account of a client of the law firm, Messrs Hafarizam Wan & Aisha Mubarak, to several individuals and companies between June and December 2014.

For the second charge, he was alleged to have ordered the transfer of RM6.14 million, which were proceeds from illegal activities, through 16 transactions from the account of the same client of the law firm to individuals and companies between January and August 2015.

Stadlen’s lawyer, Kelvin Gold, said in a statement today there is no law that allows charging a person in absentia in Malaysia.

“We are appalled by the actions of the Malaysian government, who today used the media to leak that Paul Stadlen will be charged in absentia, despite there being no such provision under Malaysian law,” Gold said, in response to media reports yesterday that the Briton will be charged today.

“Paul has not been in hiding… The Malaysian government has a political agenda, and Paul is now caught up in the backlash against former prime minister.” – February 21, 2019.