FORMER prime minister Najib Razak’s SRC International Sdn Bhd trial enters its 31st day today, with the 42nd witness, former director Suboh Md Yassin returning to the stand.

Suboh is expected to be cross-examined again after he agreed yesterday with the defence that it was possible that former SRC International CEO Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil forged Suboh’s signature on letters of instructions to AmIslamic Bank.

Najib’s lead counsel, Mohd Shafee Abdullah, suggested Suboh’s signature had been forged, and that the signatures on bank transactions that were scanned and provided to the bank did not match the original copies.

“I am putting it to you that Nik Faisal forged your signature, scanned your forged signature, and sent it to the bank. Do you agree?” said Shafee during cross-examination, to which Suboh replied, “Maybe.”

About a dozen instructions letters to AmIslamic Bank from between 2014 and 2015 were produced in court yesterday, including instructions for transactions between SRC International and its subsidiary Gandingan Mentari Sdn Bhd or its corporate social responsibility partner Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd.  

Shafee used a projector to show the signatures on scanned instruction letters to the bank did not match the original documents that must be sent to the bank two days after transactions are approved.

He pointed to instances where the signatures on the scanned instruction letters matched perfectly, commenting on signatures that varied in thickness and size.

Also on focus was Suboh’s signature itself, following his admission that there were variations of it on documents related to SRC International.

Asked about the reason for the variations, Suboh replied: “Ikut sedap.”

He said it meant that his signature varied as did everyone’s.

After learning that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had taken samples of Suboh’s signature, Shafee then requested that he provide 20 copies of his signature in court, citing Section 73 of the Evidence Act.

Suboh told the court that he suffered a stroke in 2017, and this might have impaired his motor skills.

Najib’s charges in this trial relate to the RM4 billion in loans issued to SRC International in 2011 and 2012, from which he is accused of receiving RM42 million in his personal 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.

Najib, 66, is represented by a dozen lawyers led by Shafee.

Attorney-General Tommy Thomas leads the prosecution while Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali presides over the trial at the Kuala Lumpur High Court. 

The Malaysian Insight brings you today’s proceedings live:

5.18pm: Court adjourns for the day, with Suboh to continue his testimony tomorrow.

5.12pm: Things get heated when Sithambaram reprimands the defence for cutting off the witness as he is trying to speak.

“Please let him speak, you are cutting him off.”

Nazlan agrees that the witness should be allowed to speak uninterrupted.

5.09pm: Suboh says Nik Faisal told the board that he had a meeting with Najib, and the board then decided to take action based on the minutes of the said meeting.

“Nik Faisal is emboldened because he is a very powerful person.”

Suboh says Nik Faisal “had a mountain behind him”, and that was why he had the power to make decisions.

4.53pm: Harvinderjit asks Suboh if the board ever made a formal resolution stating that it has appointed Najib as SRC International adviser emeritus.

Suboh says no, the board did not appoint the then prime minister as such.

He says the board had never written to the adviser emeritus to seek his advice. He adds that the board never had meetings with the adviser emeritus.

Najib never gave advice to the board, he says.

4.27pm: Suboh says he would not have committed to letting the money flow out if he had known about and was shown the Rentas forms.

Harvinderjit: This means that your signature had been cut and pasted on those forms?

Suboh: That’s what plausibly happened.

3.40pm: Suboh reiterates that he was never shown the Rentas transfer forms, but knew that the money going out from SRC International to Gandingan Mentari and Putra Perdana was for CSR work, to help flood victims in the east coast.

3.33pm: He says he knows his signature, and that is not his signature. He says when MACC took his statement in Abu Dhabi in 2015, he did not have time to examine the Rentas forms. He adds that Nik Faisal was contacting him often during that period in 2015.

3.30pm: He says the same thing about three Rentas forms for funds to be transferred from SRC International to Putra Perdana. He says he does not know how his signature was used without his knowledge.

3.25pm: Suboh says MACC showed him 13 Rentas fund transfers from SRC International to Gandingan Mentari, and Gandingan Mentari to Ihsan Perdana. In his statement recorded last year, he said the signatures on the forms were not his. In 2015, he said the signatures were his, but after the general election last year, he changed his statement to say someone had forged his signature.

He says he does not remember signing the Rentas forms, and the signatures varied from his.

3.13pm: Shafee asks him what made him check about his travel validity when he was in Jakarta.

Shafee: What made you look on whether you were travel banned? When you were in Jakarta.

Suboh: It is like this, I spoke to my son who was in Malaysia, my son asked me to check my passport as he knew that I was on a travel ban.

3.10pm: Suboh says while he was in Jakarta, he noticed that he had a travel ban issued against him.

He immediately contacted the MACC and cooperated with them. He says he called MACC to get the ban lifted, the MACC officer told him to return to Malaysia.

Shafee asks if he is under MACC witness protection, Suboh says he is not aware of any witness protection as reported in the media.

Suboh says he continues to stay in his house as per normal when he came back and does not know if he is being guarded by MACC officers.

When he came back, Suboh says he met with MACC officers, and claims he did not negotiate any deals with them.

He is not sure if his travel ban is still in effect.

3.07pm: Suboh says he left Malaysia to go to Jakarta with his wife on May 9, 2018.

He says he only went to Jakarta and came back on the 27 or 28 in the same month.

3.05pm: Suboh reiterates that signatures on Rentas forms bearing his name for monetary transactions from SRC International to Gandingan Mentari are not his.

He also does not recall signing any such documents.

3pm: Court is in session.

Suboh says he had the chance to go through his 2018 and 2015 statements.

Shafee asks him if the signatures on Rentas forms from SRC International to Gandingan Mentari are his.

Suboh says those signatures are not his. He gave the same answer twice to MACC officers on different occasions.

1.28pm: Mohd Nazlan agrees that excerpts posed by the prosecution to be read. However, he allows the witness to go through the statement and highlight to the court parts that are relevant other than those already brought up.

Court is adjourned for lunch.

1.20pm: The prosecution makes a submission to Mohd Nazlan that the witness only read selected excerpts from his statement in 2015.

However, the defence has objected, arguing the witness should be allowed to read his own full statement, instead of excerpts.

12.34pm: Deputy public prosecutor V. Sithambaram addresses Mohd Nazlan and apologises for the delay, Suboh will go through the statement to refresh his memory.

11.15am: Court is in recess as the prosecution requests time to retrieve documents from the MACC office. Those documents are Suboh’s statements to the MACC in 2015 and 2018.

9.46am: Shafee asks Suboh is he has been shown the original form, Suboh said no.

Shafee suggests that someone has forged his signature. Suboh says he cannot say those signatures that were just shown belongs to him.

Suboh also says he cannot remember what he signed at SRC International.

9.29am: Shafee is showing Suboh that there are two iterations of his signatures.

One that is identical with Suboh’s sample signature and another one with distinct differences to the sample signature.

9.26am: Suboh takes the stand. The defence resumes with asserting that Suboh’s signatures were forged by Nik Faisal.

9.12am: Court starts for a brief two minutes before the defence team has technical difficulties with its projector screen.

Court has taken a five-minute break. – July 2, 2019.