THE Kuala Lumpur High Court has fixed April 3 to begin hearing Najib Razak’s trial for money laundering, corruption and abuse of power related to government firm SRC International.

Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali fixed the date today after allowing the prosecution’s request that the trial begin on Wednesday.

Additional dates will be set after a written request is made to the chief judge of Malaya to prioritise Najib’s trial over others.

The trial date was set after the Federal Court yesterday ruled that Najib’s trial must start immediately.

The apex court made this ruling after rejecting Najib’s application for the court to stay the trial pending the outcome of Najib’s three appeals on interlocutory matters relating to the SRC International case.

These interlocutory appeals – on a gag order on the media and public from discussing Najib’s criminal cases; for the defence to access investigation documents; and, on the attorney-general’s withdrawal of his transfer certificate on the SRC case – will be heard on April 4. 

“We are toying with the idea of writing to the CJM (Chief Judge of Malaya Zaharah Ibrahim) to set a priority for this case over the 1MDB (1Malaysia Development Bhd) case,” deputy public prosecutor Suhaimi Ibrahim told the court.

Suhaimi had also requested for April 8 to 12 be vacated to “bring in substantial witnesses”. 

Najib’s lawyer, Harvinderjit Singh, objected, saying all the dates had been taken up by cases that included a money-laundering case against lawyer Shafee Abdullah and a Federal Court hearing on an application to dismiss Gopal Sri Ram as fiat prosecutor. 

Harvinderjit added that the defence also needed time to prepare for the 1MDB trial, which is slated to begin April 15 and will last until May 3. Najib faces 25 counts of corruption involving RM2.3 billion allegedly siphoned off 1MDB.

“Can adjustments be made due to the public interest nature of this case?” Nazlan asked, to which Harvinderjit replied that the defence will ultimately have to comply with any ruling by the chief judge of Malaya.

Najib, dressed in a blue suit, did not speak to the media later. He was accompanied by a dozen supporters, including Umno Supreme Council member Lokman Noor Adam, who was charged earlier today for assaulting a student. 

Today’s proceedings were for the prosecution to inform the high court of yesterday’s ruling by the Federal Court that the Court of Appeal has no jurisdiction in staying the SRC International trial.

Najib’s SRC International trial was initially scheduled to be held from February 12 until this Friday, but was postponed twice by the Court of Appeal, on February 11 and last Thursday, following appeals by the defence.

The 66-year-old Pekan MP is facing three counts of criminal breach of trust and one charge of abusing his position over SRC International funds amounting to RM42 million.

He was also charged with three counts of money laundering involving the same amount of money. – March 28, 2019.