NAJIB Razak’s SRC International trial enters its 25th day today, with the defence likely to confront former SRC International board chairman Ismee Ismail over several inconsistencies in his statements so far as a witness.

Najib’s lawyers are planning to grill Ismee over several statements made over the past week and cast doubts over his credibility as the 39th witness.

Ismee, taking the stand for the fifth day and is the trial’s longest testifying witness, may be further confronted by the defence for apparent contradictions between his testimony on the stand and his six-page witness statement recorded by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) when he was questioned last year.

Yesterday’s hearing halted mid-day after Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali allowed the defence’s application to cross-check for alleged contradictions in Ismee’s oral evidence since Monday.

Just prior to the lawyers meeting in-chambers with Nazlan, Ismee testified that SRC International’s board followed the orders of Najib in his capacity as shareholder as he was finance minister then.

SRC International, set up in January 2011, was owned by 1Malaysia Development Bhd before ownership was transferred to the Ministry of Finance Inc (MoF), a corporate body under the finance minister.

Najib was also chairman of 1MDB’s advisory board then.

Ismee’s testimony that the board makes its decision based on the shareholders’ resolution appeared to have contradicted earlier testimony that SRC International’s board of directors followed Najib’s advice in his capacity as adviser emeritus.

The matter was also pointed out by defence counsel Harvinderjit Singh, who said that Ismee’s witness statement did not mention that board has to act upon the shareholders’ resolution, or that Najib was the shareholder of SRC.

Lead defence lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah informed Nazlan: “We need to look at SRC International’s board of director’s resolutions again and study the transcript thus far, on the need of the board to take instructions from Najib.”

Ad hoc prosecutor V. Sithambaram also told the court that the prosecution will go through Ismee’s transcripts before deciding on its next course of action.

Earlier yesterday, Ismee testified that the board of SRC International never sought to verify CEO Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil’s statements and directives, which he claimed came directly from Najib.

Ismee said the board, which he chaired from 2011 to 2014, trusted Nik Faisal, who served as the “link” between the entity and the former prime minister.

Ismee had earlier this week clashed with the defence on the interpretation of the minutes of a meeting between Nik Faisal and Najib on September 7, 2011.

The meeting discussed the deposit of RM1.8 billion in SRC International funds into banks in Switzerland and Hong Kong after the entity received its first loan disbursement in mid-2011.

The meeting between Nik Faisal and Najib occurred about a week after Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP) disbursed its first loan of RM2 billion to SRC International.

At that meeting, Najib was alleged to have approved a deposit of RM1.5 billion into Swiss bank BSI Ltd and another RM300 million into Julius Baer Group in Hong Kong. The money was from KWAP’s first loan to SRC International, which was made out on August 29, 2011.

The minutes’ veracity is being disputed and Nazlan has agreed not to file it as evidence yet.

Nik Faisal is currently missing and sought by the police. 

Najib’s charges in this trial relate to the RM4 billion loan to SRC International made out in 2011 and 2012, for which he is accused of receiving RM42 million in his accounts in 2014 and 2015.

He faces three counts of criminal breach of trust, three counts of money-laundering and one count of abuse of power.  

The Malaysian Insight brings you today’s proceedings live:

12.30pm: Court adjourns until Monday with Ismee’s cross-examination to continue.

11.40am: They are still going through transactions and the board’s role in them.

Ismee said he doesn’t know when the funds were transferred out from SRC International’s account.

When he went to Switzerland to see if the RM1.5 billion was safe in the account, he didn’t know if that was part of the RM2 billion loan given by KWAP to SRC International.

11.05am: Harvinderjit continues his cross examination.

11am: Court resumes and V. Sithambaram addresses Nazlan before cross-examination starts. He tells the judge that they have found a document that had gone missing about a shareholders’ resolution.

This is a document on an ultimate resolution of SRC international in August 2011.

10.40am: Court stands down for 10 minutes.

9.50am: Harvinderjit is now asking Ismee to clarify statements he gave the DPP during his examination earlier in the week.

The lawyer is asking Ismee about a shareholders’ resolution where the board had specified the use of the RM2 billion KWAP loan.

9.35am: Ismee repeats an earlier statement that he has never met Najib in his capacity as SRC board chairman from 2011 and 2014.

Ismee agrees with Harvinderjit’s statement that Najib was not a shareholder of SRC International by early 2012, and that the entity was owned by the Ministry of Finance Inc.

Ismee, however, maintains that the board’s decisions were in accordance with Najib’s instructions.

9.30am: Ismee takes the stand and contimues his testimony on Najib’s role in SRC International. Defence counsel Harvinderjit Singh is cross-examining. – June 14, 2019.