NAJIB Razak’s SRC International trial enters its third day today, with Bank Negara investigator Azizul Adzani Abdul Ghafar back on the stand. 

Azizul, the second witness, testified yesterday that the central bank seized eight folders of documents from a raid at an AmBank branch in Kuala Lumpur more than three years ago. 

Of the eight folders, four were related to accounts opened by Najib, three by SRC International and one by SRC International subsidiary Gadingan Mentari. The accounts were opened between 2011 and 2015. 

Azizul also identified AmBank manager R. Uma Devi, from who he obtained the documents, and central bank investigating officer Ahmad Farhan Sharifuddin. Ahmad appointed Azizul on July 6, 2015 to carry out search and seizures.

The trial’s first witness, Companies Commission of Malaysia assistant registrar Muhamad Akmaludin Abdullah, testified yesterday that Najib was one of the directors in Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia, a foundation under SRC International.

Najib, along with former 1MDB chairman Lodin Wok Kamaruddin and Ahmad Shihab Wan Ismail, were appointed directors on January 11, 2013. 

Akmaludin, under cross-examination by the defence, also confirmed that Azlin Alias, Najib’s special officer for economic affairs, was a Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia director up until he died in a helicopter crash in Semenyih on April 4, 2015, which also killed former minister Jamaluddin Jarjis.

The Malaysian Insight brings you today’s proceedings live.

5pm: Court adjourns. Hearing resumes tomorrow.

4.51pm: The task force in question was helmed by members of the police, MACC, A-G’s Chambers and Bank Negara. Nizam says the documents he seized were for the task force.

Harvinderjit: Do you know who is in the task force? 

Nizam: I’m not sure.

Harvinderjit: But I’m sure you know as this was the first time taking out a notice against the prime minister? 

Nizam: I was aware of it, in general.

Nizam adds he was at the Affin Bank headquarters on July 6, 2015, from 10am to 8.30pm.

4.38pm: Shafee asks if the defence can continue its cross-examination tomorrow morning. The judge denies his request, saying it is “too early” to adjourn for the day.

4.37pm: Nizam says the documents related to the three accounts were given to the MACC. Suhaimi concludes his examination.

4.32pm: Nizam continues testifying. He says a few representatives from an unknown task force came to his office to examine and make copies of the documents. He says the originals documents were submitted to the MACC in June 2018.

4.23pm: Najib arrives and takes his place in the dock with a beverage in his hands.

4.22pm: Shafee realises Najib is not in the dock and asks one of his lawyers to check.

4.22pm: The judge enters. The marking issue has been resolved. However, Najib is not in the dock. The court waits for him to return.

4.17pm: The court stands down until the prosecution sorts out a labelling issue with some documents. 

They are re-marking the documents.

3.55pm: Nizam says he was tasked with serving notice under Section 37(1) of the Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 (AMLA) to Affin Bank Sdn Bhd for the purpose of procuring banking documents related to the account belonging to Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd. 

He said he went to the Affin Bank headquarters in Jalan Raja Chulan to serve notice to an officer, Nimma Safira Khalid.

The documents procured included account opening forms with supporting documents, three current accounts, customer due diligence forms for the three current accounts, and statement of accounts as well as related documents with links to the three accounts, among others.

3.24pm: Azizul steps down after questioning. 

The trial’s third witness, Mohd Nizam Yahya, 39, an analyst at Bank Negara’s Financial Intelligence and Enforcement Department, is called to the stand.

He begins by being cross-examined by Suhaimi Ibrahim.

3.13pm: Azizul says that he didn’t ask Uma Devi about the account when she gave him the additional documents. Harvinderjit asks Azizul if he asked Uma about Joanna Yu, who was handling the SRC account for AmBank, to which Azizul answers “no”.

Azizul then says he lodged a police report over his findings at AmBank.

2.50pm: The trial resumes with lawyer Harvinderjit continuing his cross-examination of Azizul. On the prosecution side, Attorney-General Tommy Thomas is not present in court as he attends another prior engagement after lunch. The prosecution is represented by Suhaimi Ibrahim and V. Sithambaram.

12.55pm: He then grilled Azizul on whether he received orders to obtain bank documents on the specific transactions of between RM5 million and RM40 million, which took place between December 2014 and February 2015.

The court then breaks for lunch.

12.45pm: Azizul then said the transactions in question were given by AmBank Raja Chulan branch manager R. Uma Devi without him asking for them.

11.37am: Harvinderjit grills Azizul on whether he asked for account specifics and transaction specifics during the raid.

Azizul said no. Harvinderjit then asks how he came about getting the specific transactions from Uma Devi. Azizul said he was not sure.

“Please come out of your cave, you are clearly not telling us the whole story,” Harvinderjit tells the witness.

11.35am: Court resumes proceedings.

Harvinderjit asks Azizul if he was briefed to look out for specific transactions with regard to SRC International or Gandingan Menteri. Azizul said he does not remember.

Harvinderjit then asks if he’s unsure or can’t remember.

11.20am: Proceedings stop for a short break.

10.20am: Harvinderjit asks whether Azizul remembered if there were MACC officers in the second team. He said he did not know.

Azizul said the second team were from Bank Negara’s investigation department.

10.15am: Azizul said he waited for other teams to finish their raids at the AmBank office in Jalan Raja Chulan.

He denied waiting because he wanted to monitor the other teams.

He said he waited to go back with the other team, adding that he did not know their instructions.

Azizul said he waited from 11am till about 10pm for the second team to finish.

10.07am: Azizul said that other than the account number, he wasn’t told the name of the account holder when carrying out the raid.

He also did not meet any of the 1MDB top brass when Harvinderjit mentioned their names. He said his role was just to seize the documents.

Harvinderjit asks after getting the documents, what did he do.

10.05am: Harvinderjit asks when they went to seize the documents on July 6, was Azizul instructed to look for any specific document.

Azizul replied that he was instructed to get all documents attached to Najib’s account.

10am: Azizul said the AmBank raid on July 6, 2015, under AMLA (Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act) was his only involvement, adding that he did not know whether it was under a special task force or not.

9.57am: In the AmBank raid, Azizul said he was part of the investigation. Harvinderjit asks what were the instructions during the raid.

Azizul said he was asked to record his observations in writing.

9.50am: Harvinderjit asks whether seizure forms are requisite for each raid. Azizul confirms this.

From 2000 until 2008, Azizul said he worked in Bank Negara’s human resource department.

Harvinderjit asks whether it is common for Bank Negara officers to create money trail graph. Azizul said he does not know.

9.45am: Harvinderjit asks other than the raid, did Azizul carry out other raids? What other operations?

Azizul replied that they carried out about 20 in 2015. He participated in about 10 raids a year between 2008 and 2015.

9.40am: Attorney-General Tommy Thomas apologises for procedural problems over provision of copies to the defence.

Azizul Adzani Abdul Ghafar takes the stand. Defence lawyer Harvinderjit Singh begins the cross-examination.

9.39am: Najib enters the dock. – April 16, 2019.