THE Kuala Lumpur High Court today allowed an application by prosecutors to transfer from the sessions court a case against Najib Razak and former 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy, who were charged with tampering with the final 1MDB audit report.

“Given that this case is of public interest and that several charges have already been transferred and there are no objections, and these applications would be expedient to the ends of justice, the transfer is allowed,” said Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali.

Najib was represented by Muhammad Farhan Shafee while Arul Kanda was represented by N. Sivanathan. Deputy public prosecutor Amir Nasruddin appeared for the government.

The high court will fix a trial date after the sessions court is informed of the transfer by the lawyers.

Najib faces 42 criminal charges, mostly related to embezzlement and corruption involving the sovereign wealth fund, all of which will now be tried in the high court.

The high court in January ordered Najib and Arul Kanda to be tried jointly for tampering an audit report on 1MDB.

Both were charged separately on December 12, with Najib being accused of abusing his power to gain protection from disciplinary action in order to amend the final audit report that was presented to Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee.

Arul Kanda was charged with abetting Najib, who was also the finance minister overseeing 1MDB at that time.

The offence was allegedly committed between February 22 and 26, 2016, at the Prime Minister’s Department in Putrajaya.

Auditor-General Madinah Mohamad revealed in November that the 1MDB final audit report was modified upon Najib’s orders.

Madinah said two key points were removed from the report, which were the presence of fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low, in a 1MDB board meeting and the state investor’s financial status.

Following Madinah’s statement, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission opened fresh investigation papers and said it would call up several individuals to assist in its probe. – March 14, 2019.