NAJIB Razak’s lawyers seek access to a Blackberry mobile device belonging to an AmBank manager believed to be the confidant of financier Low Taek Jho, who is wanted by police.

The defence lawyers in the SRC International trial hope to prove that Najib might not have had the full picture of his bank transactions, as they were made by his nominees.

Bank Negara investigating officer Ahmad Farhan Sharifuddin told the Kuala Lumpur High Court today that he handed over the Blackberry belonging to AmBank relationship manager Joanna Yu to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission some time in November, 2015.

Farhan had led the central bank’s investigating team in one of three raids on AmBank on July 6, 2015. He testified today that he had seized four USB flash drives that belonged to Yu and manager Daniel Lee, as well as a 1-terabyte hard disk drive of Yu’s.

The Bank Negara investigators also seized a Samsung Galaxy 4 handphone belonging to Ambank relationship manager Krystle Yap.

Farhan testified today he was not aware if there were transcripts made of the communications logged in the devices as a Bank Negara forensic expert identified as Shuzairizman Yusof was in charge of the matter.

Yu’s phone was later handed over to one Rosli Hussein of the MACC, Farhan said.

He added that he does not know where Yap’s phone currently is.

Farhan was ordered by the court last week to retrieve further documents, if he has them, that detailed the communications between AmBank bankers and key 1MDB key figures, including Jho Low.

Najib’s lawyers have requested the communication transcripts between three AmBank relationship managers – Yu, Lee and Yap – and 10 individuals.

The 10 are: Low Taek Jho; former SRC International CEO and director Nik Faisal Nik Ariff Kamil; former director Jerome Lee Tak Loong; former 1MDB finance executive director Terence Geh Choh Heng; former 1MDB general counsel Jasmine Loo Ai Swan; former 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi; former SRC International CEO and president Mohammed Azhar Osman Khairuddin; former 1MDB CEO Ismee Ismail; former SRC International director Suboh Md Yasin and See Yok Peng.

Defence lawyers told the court last week that they wanted access to the communications that might have been made via email and encrypted text messages on the BlackBerry devices.

Lawyer Harvinderjit Singh had read out excerpts from the bestseller book Billion Dollar Whale, where Low allegedly coached Yu on how to use the BlackBerry to communicate discreetly.

Yu was identified in court as the relationship manager in charge of the SRC International and 1Malaysia Development Bhd accounts.

Farhan today handed over two folders containing hard copies of emails from the three managers before being released from the stand.

The defence asked justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali to call Farhan back on Wednesday to continue cross examination as there was not enough time to go through all the emails in the folders today.

Apart from the copies of emails, the defence said they also wanted access to Yu’s Blackberry.

Najib’s lead counsel, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, said they should proceed with witnesses that “are not so complicated” in the meantime. The prosecution did not object.

Also re-called to take the stand today was AmBank cheque processing officer Badrul Hisham Mohamad, who was asked to mark and verify cheques which were issued from Najib’s AmBank Islamic account.

Earlier, Manisah Othman, 59, of the Department of Statistics, testified that she received a cheque amounting to RM13,800 from Najib.

She said she received the cheque following the death of her husband – identified as Amiruddin – in June, 2013 from liver cancer.

He had worked in the Prime Minister’s Department as a liaison officer to Boustead Holdings prior to his death.

The money was used to pay for one of her children’s university education.

In the morning, two Umno leaders, a shelter home trustee and a handyman testified to receiving over RM800,000 in cheques originating from Najib’s AmBank account.

Nazlan also ruled that video of court proceedings should not be published online, after the prosecution raised a video of the trial that was leaked online.

Police are investigating the leak. – April 22, 2019.