NAJIB Razak’s SRC International Sdn Bhd trial enters its 28th day today with the 40th witness, retired deputy chief cabinet secretary Mazidah Abdul Majid, returning to the stand.

She will be cross-examined by the defence on ministers leaving meetings due to conflicts of interest.

Her testimony was delayed as Najib’s lead counsel, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, requested that the ministerial code of ethics – a guideline on how ministers should conduct themselves at cabinet meetings – be produced in court.

Mazidah, 70, will also likely refer to original copies of meeting minutes made available to the court after prosecutors and judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali said they may not breach secrecy laws.

She told the Kuala Lumpur High Court yesterday about four cabinet meetings between 2011 and 2015 relating to SRC International. The meetings’ minutes, which were referred to in court but not read out, were declassified for the trial.

Mazidah said ministers, including former prime minister and finance minister Najib, former youth and sports minister Khairy Jamaluddin and former defence minister Hishammuddin Hussein, had excused themselves from other cabinet meetings due to conflicts of interest.

She testified that these ministers had left meetings when it appeared that they had a vested interest in the memorandums discussed by the cabinet.

She cited an occasion when Najib left a meeting because the memorandum being discussing involved CIMB Bank, to which Shafee said the court could make a guess as Najib’s brother, Nazir, was the bank’s chairman at the time.

She also said Barisan Nasional ministers did not object when Najib sought cabinet approval in August 2011 and February 2012 for RM4 billion in loans from Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP) to SRC International.

Najib’s charges in this trial relate to the loans, for which he is accused of receiving RM42 million in his personal bank 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. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years’ jail.

The 66-year-old is represented by a dozen lawyers led by Shafee.

Attorney-General Tommy Thomas leads the prosecution, while Nazlan presides over the trial.

The Malaysian Insight brings you today’s proceedings live:

5.15pm: The court is adjourned and the trial continues tomorrow.

5.06pm: Farhan tells the judge that his line of questioning is trying to show that the government was caught “between a rock and a hard place” when it came to approving loans for SRC International.

4.56pm: Farhan questions her about the term “Event of Default” in her statement.

4.30pm: She is being asked on normal procedures of how a memorandum is tabled at a cabinet meeting.

3.50pm: Afidah says her job scope is to prepare the memorandum for deliberation at cabinet meetings. She does not have any other dealings with cabinet meetings.

3.10pm: Farhan tells the judge the defence is establishing the process of the government guarantee as it feels the witness statement was crafted in a way that she did not understand its procedures.

He says the defence also wants to establish if she was simply preparing documents based on instructions given.

2.52pm: Farhan Read takes over the cross examination. He is going through her witness statement.

2.46pm: Harvinderjit asks her if MoF has made a motion to get the money frozen in Switzerland. She agrees.

2.38pm: The court resumes with Afidah taking the stand.

Harvinderjit asks her if she is aware of a meeting last year between Lim Guan Eng, Tommy Thomas and the Swiss attorney-general.

She says she is unaware of the meeting.

1.06pm: Court is in recess.

12.45pm: Harvinderjit is going through her witness statement while walking her through the criteria of a government guarantee.

12.30pm: Harvinderjit asks Afidah when she referred to the finance minister in her statement, did she mean finance minister or second finance minister.

She takes a long pause and says finance minister.

12.13pm: She says the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) took her statement in 2015 and 2018.

Harvinderjit: So, can we say that you have given around four to five statements?

Afidah: Yes.

12.10pm: Suhaimi ends his questioning as Harvinderjit Singh begins his cross examination.

12.05pm: Afidah says the appointments of the board of directors, managing director and CEO for SRC International were carried out by the prime minister.

11.56am: Suhaimi resumes his questioning of Afidah.

11.17am: Court is in recess.

11.14am: She says a company seeking a government guarantee will be studied first before the MoF makes a decision.

“They will go through necessary documents of the company to ascertain if the guarantee can be given.”

She says for SRC International, these procedures were not be adhered to.

“The government guarantee was given based on their word. There were no documents given by SRC International to the ministry to study and verify.”

She says everything MoF knew about SRC International was told to them by Nik Faisal.

11.12am: Suhaimi asks her to clarify the terms of the loans that was in her witness statement. She is also asked to identify Nik Faisal Arif Kamil from a photo.

11.04am: She says SRC International’s loan with KWAP will end in 2022, 10 years after it was approved. 

Afidah says the balance that the goverment has to pay to KWAP is RM4.15 billion.

11.01am: Afidah says only RM290 million of the RM300 million was used, nothing has been paid back to MoF. She says the government is still paying interest to KWAP.

10.59am: She says despite the outstanding amount, MoF agreed to give SRC International another RM300 million.

10.58am: She says by 2017, SRC International had taken almost RM305 million from MoF (RM92 million + RM213 million).

10.56am: In 2017, SRC International asked for another RM300 million loan to pay KWAP interest on the RM4 billion loan. Payments had not been made since March 2017.

10.54am: Afidah says to her knowledge, SRC International did not use the full RM250 million standby credit loan. The money taken out by SRC International amounted to RM213 million. She says SRC International had never paid MoF back any of the loans it took. She says SRC International did not pay back KWAP for the interest as well.

10.49am: She says to her knowledge, SRC International never paid MoF back the RM92 million. The company had not paid KWAP its interest payments, too. SRC International had asked for a second short-term bailout loan from MoF, and was granted a “stand-by-credit” loan of up to RM250 million for the outstanding interest payments to KWAP.

10.43am: Afidah says a RM92 million bailout was arranged so that SRC International did not default on the KWAP loan. In the event of default, MoF, as guarantor of the loan, would have to pay KWAP back the RM4 billion loan in 30 working days.

10.40am: She says a meeting was held between MoF, KWAP and SRC International in September 2015 to resolve the issue. It was chaired by then Treasury sec-gen Irwan Serigar Abdullah. At that meeting it was learnt that SRC International’s funds in Switzerland had been frozen and that they had not paid back any of their interest payments on the loan taken from KWAP.

10.38am: Based on the letter issued by KWAP, Afidah wrote to SRC International, asking for an explanation for the missed interest payments. She didn’t receive a reply.

10.35am: Afidah says MoF, as a guarantor to SRC International’s loan, would need to know the interest payments made to KWAP. 

She says as of March 2, 2015, SRC International had arrears in interest payments. 

KWAP wrote to MoF on August 28, 2015, asking for the immediate payment of the overdue interest.

10.28am: Afidah says the two government guarantees on the RM4 billion in loans to SRC International from KWAP meant that MoF would pay off any principal payments and interest accrued on the loan. She says that the government guarantee letters were signed by finance ministers, Najib Razak and Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah.

10.26am: She says KWAP granted a loan to SRC International before the government guaranteed it. This was the first time this had happened in her experience.

10.15am: She says on August 17, 2011, Nik Faisal went to Finance Ministry (MoF) to ask for a government guarantee on the RM4 billion in KWAP loans that SRC International had procured.

10.11am Shafee interjects, saying the witness should be allowed to complete her statement before questioning. He says additional questions should be asked once the witness completes reading it. Nazlan agrees, and Suhaimi does not obejct.

10.09am: Prosecutor Suhaimi Ibrahim questions Afidah.

10.02am: She says on August 15, 2011, SRC International executives met Treasury officials. She said Nik Faisal was present that day.

9.55am: The 41st witness is Afidah Azwa Abdul Aziz, 44. She joined the Finance Ministry in 2001 as assistant secretary of the Economy Department. Afidah is now is principal assistant secretary.

9.47am: Sithambaram tells Nazlan the prosecution has obtained documents they requested and have given them to Shafee. 

He asks Nazlan for time to go through them and to proceed with the next witness until then. 

Shafee thanks Sithambaram for the documents and agrees. Shafee requests that Nazlan orders Mahzida to come tomorrow. 

Nazlan agrees to proceed with witness 41.

9.40am: Thomas and DPP V. Sithambaram enter the courtroom.

9.30am: Najib, donning a beige suit, sits in the public gallery, waiting for proceedings to begin. – June 19, 2019.