NAJIB Razak’s lawyers will today formally receive the remaining communication transcripts from devices seized by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) in a raid on Ambank’s branch in Jalan Raja Chulan, Kuala Lumpur, on July 6, 2015.

The transcripts include chat logs from a BlackBerry belonging to former AmBank relationship manager Joanna Yu, whose communications with wanted financier Low Taek Jho were the focus of the SRC International Sdn Bhd trial last week.

Today, prosecutors will call up Shuzairizman Shuib, a digital analyst with BNM’s Financial Intelligence and Enforcement Department, who previously testified in the trial.

The central bank officer will formally produce hundreds of pages of documents that had not been tendered as evidence.

Copies of the documents were made available to the defence last week to allow the former prime minister’s lawyers to prepare for the further cross-examination of Yu, who is expected to be called up today, making it her fifth appearance on the witness stand.

On Thursday, she was questioned on the extent of her relationship with Low. Although communications with the Penang-born businessman were frequent, she denied carrying out instructions beyond what was legally stipulated within her job scope.

She was questioned about a text conversation with Najib’s mandate holder, former SRC International CEO Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, in which she referred to Low as “boss”.

Yu, the prosecution’s 54th witness, maintained that she did not carry out transactions on Low or Nik Faisal’s instructions.

She received a text message from Low on March 3, 2015 telling her to clear the chat logs on her BlackBerry Messenger, but did not follow the instructions, telling the court that she did not know how to delete the data.

Yu said she knew Low from as far back as 2008, before 1Malaysia Development Bhd was formed. Low was, at the time, attempting to raise funds for Majestic Masterpiece Sdn Bhd.

During this period, Yu also met Nik Faisal, during a deal in which Saudi oil firm PetroSaudi International Ltd sought to acquire Utama Banking Group Bhd, held by Majestic Masterpiece.

Low was also made a special adviser to the Terengganu Investment Authority, a state wealth fund that was taken over by Minister of Finance Inc in 2009 and renamed 1MDB, she testified.

She denied passing information to Wall Street Journal journalists Tom Wright and Bradley Hope, who ran a series of articles that exposed the alleged siphoning of public funds from 1MDB.

Yu said she did not conspire with Low to defraud SRC International of millions.

Defence lawyers previously suggested that bankers had worked with Low, possibly with the help of SRC International senior executives, to pilfer the government-linked entity.

Najib’s charges in this case are linked to RM4 billion in loans issued to SRC International in 2011 and 2012, for which he is accused of receiving RM42 million in his personal accounts in 2014 and 2015.

The 66-year-old faces three counts of criminal breach of trust, three counts of money-laundering and one count of abuse of power.

He is represented by a dozen lawyers, led by Muhammad Shafee Abdullah. Attorney-General Tommy Thomas leads the prosecution, while Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali presides over the trial.

The Malaysian Insight brings you today’s proceedings live:

5.19pm: Court adjourns for the day. It will resume on Wednesday.

5.14pm: The defence continues going through chat logs between Yu and Low.

4.53pm: Harvinderjit suggests that, based on the chats, there were numerous instances in which cheques were issued without enough funds in Najib’s account. Yu agrees with the suggestion that Low was directly involved in the funds being replenished.

4.51pm: Harvinderjit suggests that everyone, including Nik Faisal, was acting on Low’s instruction. He brings up a chat with Nik Faisal in which Yu tells him that RM3.5 million was needed in the account. Nik Faisal then replies Yu with, “Please tell someone”.  That “someone”, Harvinderjit suggests, is Low.

4.29pm: Harvinderjit suggests that Low gave instructions about the account, and that Nik Faisal merely signs off on it. Yu says this was the case sometimes.

She says she doesn’t know for sure if Nik Faisal was merely following Low’s orders.

She reiterates that only Nik Faisal could sign off on instructions as he was the accounts’ mandate holder.

4.21pm: Court resumes after a short break, with Harvinderjit continuing his cross-examination of Yu.

He is now addressing letters in which Nik Faisal was made mandate holder for Najib’s accounts.

3.55pm: Harvinderjit asks Yu about Najib’s signature. He asks her if she was aware that Low and his affliates all used e-signatures. Harvinderjit suggests that she never received any hard copy of documents with Najib’s true signature. Yu agrees.

He also tells her that in these documents, Nik Faisal’s name is added by pen. Yu agrees.

Harvinderjit says that one cannot discount the possibility of the letter being signed by someone else or that Najib signed it without Nik Faisal’s name on the document.

3.27pm: Harvinderjit suggests that Low told Yu that three new accounts were to be opened in Najib’s name for political and Yayasan donations. 

She said she does not recall this. 

Harvinderjit suggests that when opening these three accounts, Yu had prepared the account-opening forms and dispatched them to the office. The forms were then returned with signatures. 

Yu says that there is a probability that this did indeed happen, but that she does not recall it.

3.21pm: Harvinderjit says about US$681 million was deposited into Najib’s account in 2013 from Tanore Finance Corp. Upon instruction, the account holder Najib returned US$620 million to Tanore Finance and a “new account”.

Yu agrees with this. Harvinderjit suggests that these instructions came from Low. To this, Yu disagrees.

3.09pm: Harvinderjit tells the court that Jho Low had met Yu at Kampachi restaurant, where he had booked a private room. It is at this lunch that Yu had handed over chequebooks for Najib’s current account to Low. 

A few days after the lunch, Yu messages Low to tell him not to write any cheques yet.

Low had also given her the old chequebooks back with instructions for her to “destroy the chequebooks”. Joanna tells the court that she did not destroy them.

Harvinderjit: Why didn’t you tell him that you couldn’t destroy the chequebooks? 

Yu: I followed the bank’s procedure. According to procedure, we don’t destroy chequebooks.

2.47pm: Trial resumes after lunch.

Harvinderjit starts by going through the chats Yu had with Low.

12.10pm: Yu says US$681 million was deposited into Najib’s account in 2013 from Tanore Finance Corp, a firm that will be a central focus in Najib’s coming 1MDB trial.

Harvinderjit suggests that the transfers were donations, referring to support letters by former AmBank managing director Cheah Tek Kuang to former central bank chairman Zeti Akhtar Aziz. Yu agrees.

11.33pm: Harvinderjit is trying to ascertain if the transactions are from Saudi Arabia.

11.15pm: They are going through credit transfers of Najib’s “694” current account.

Sithambaram asks Judge Nazlan if there is any relevance to the defence’s line of questioning.

Harvinderjit replies that it is important and Nazlan allows it to continue.

10.35am: Trial resumes after a five-minute recess with Yu back on the stand. They are going through credit transfers involving Najib’s current account ending with “694”.

10.07am: The witness is released from the stand.

9.58am: Defence counsel Harvinderjit begins cross-examination of the witness. Ranjit says his client was of the opinion that Najib received money that belonged to other people and he was not fit to be prime minister.

9.56am: Prosecutor V. Sithambaram interjects, and tells Nazlan that Ranjit is a necessary witness and the prosecution will also file a submission.

9.55am: Lead defence lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah tells judge Nazlan Ghazali that for purposes of prima facie, this witness is irrelevant because of provisions in the Evidence Act and the defence will make a submission.

9.54am: Ranjit says Ling dropped his counter claim when Najib withdrew the suit.

9.52am: In Najib’s affidavit in the case, he admitted that RM42 million originating from SRC International had made its way into his accounts without his knowledge through two intermediaries.

9.46am: The comments at the centre of the suit were published by a news portal on October 3, 2015. The report quoted Ling’s statements against Najib during an event at Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

In his statement of claim filed on October 27, 2015, Najib sought damages and an injunction to stop Ling from further speaking, publishing or causing to be published defamatory words against him. Najib also sought an order for an apology by Ling to be published in newspapers or magazines to be identified by the former.

However, the former prime minister withdrew the suit last year.

9.42am: Ranjit Singh says his client was singled out by Najib for legal action even though others, including Dr Mahathir Mohamad, had said far worse things at the time. This was why Ling filed a counterclaim, he says.

9.32am: He is being asked about his defence and counterclaim in Ling’s defamation suit brought by Najib.

9.19am: Today’s trial begins with the prosecution’s 55th witness, Ranjit Singh Harvinder Singh, who served as former politician Ling Liong Sik’s lawyer. – July 29, 2019.