THE prosecution aims to wrap up its case in the SRC International Sdn Bhd today should the defence complete its cross-examination of Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission investigating officer Rosli Husain.

Defence counsel Harvinderjit Singh yesterday told the court that the team hopes to finish questioning the 57th and final prosecution witness by noon today, after which prosecutors will carry out a re-examination of Rosli, who was first called to the stand on August 9.

Re-examinations, which typically take less than half a day, are when prosecutors pose their final questions to clarify inconsistencies in a witness’ testimony, as well as to highlight flaws in the defence’s arguments.

After today’s hearing is done, lawyers will inform judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah of the status of the trial. He will then decide the start date of the 1Malaysia Development Bhd hearing, in which former prime minister Najib Razak faces 25 criminal charges linked to RM2.28 billion in public funds.

The 1MDB trial had been tentatively set to begin next Monday.

Yesterday, Rosli testified that MACC knew that Najib received close to RM400 million from a Saudi prince in 2011.

He confirmed that the money was transferred into Najib’s personal AmBank account ending with “694”, and that it originated from Prince Faisal Turki Al Faisal Al Saud.

The royal was reportedly linked to Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners, a 1MDB-linked company that has been mentioned in court.

Rosli refuted claims that wanted financier Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, was behind a scheme to defraud SRC International of millions.

He denied that Najib is being wrongly accused of crimes allegedly carried out by the Penang-born businessman.

He also dismissed suggestions that he was pressured to pin the blame on Najib after the fall of the Barisan Nasional government by getting former SRC International director Suboh Md Yassin to change his witness statement.

In his statement taken in August last year, Suboh said his signature was on 17 letters of instruction. In the course of the trial, he agreed with the defence’s suggestion that his signature could have been forged.

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

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

His legal team is led by prominent Umno lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, while Attorney-General Tommy Thomas leads the prosecution.

The Malaysian Insight brings you today’s proceedings live:

4.55pm: Lawyers Shafee and Sithambaram go to judge Nazlan’s court to inform him of the decision and set the dates to wrap up the cross examination of the last witness.

Sithambaram tells Nazlan that Collin is willing to vacate Tuesday to allow for SRC International’s case to be wrapped up and 1MDB will begin on Wednesday morning.

Judge Nazlan allows for this arrangement.

4.45pm: Sri Ram says his first two witnesses’ testimonies will be short. He suggests that the case start on Wednesday morning.

Judge Collin asks if formal witnesses will be available, and Sri Ram says yes.

The judge agrees to start the trial on Wednesday morning at 9.30am.

Court adjourns.

4.40pm: Sithambaram tells the judge that they have not completed the cross examination. He asks for half a day to complete the prosecution’s case for SRC International.

Judge Collin says he would like to kickstart the trial on Tuesday afternoon once they complete the SRC International case in the morning.

Shafee asks judge Collin again if they could start on September 3 or sometime next week as he has to go through the documents.

4.35pm: Nazlan’s court is adjourned. Najib is seated in the public gallery in judge Collin’s court.

Senior ad-hoc prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram is in court with defence lawyer Shafee Abdullah.

4.25pm: Shafee stops cross examining the witness and tells Nazlan that he has to go to judge Collin’s court for 1MDB’s case management.

Sithambaram proposes for the cross examination to continue next Wednesday, subject to judge Collin’s agreement.

Sithambaram tells Nazlan that they will check with judge Collin first and get back to him. Nazlan asks to continue after.

3.35pm: Sithambaram interjects, saying that the witness cannot speak about Najib’s state of mind.

Shafee, however, says the prosecution must prove that Najib knew that the money was from illegal sources.

Shafee then moves on with the questioning, suggesting that Nik Faisal was dishonest with the board of directors. Rosli says, to his knowledge, Nik Faisal never reported to the board of directors.

3.30pm: Shafee asks the MACC officer if he investigated whether the money came from the Saudi royal family?

Rosli says he did not investigate whether it’s true or not. 

Shafee: Najib, in his belief when he spent the money, he thought that the money was donations from the Saudi royal family? 

Rosli: That’s his belief.

3.20pm: Rosli says there were no investigations into the signatures on documents.

They are now going through MACC’s questioning of Nik Faisal.

3.12pm: Court resumes with Rosli taking the stand and Shafee continuing his cross-examination.

They begin by going through SRC’s subsidiary companies.

Rosli says he did not know who the signatories of the subsidiary companies were, adding no investigations were carried out into the signatures on documents.

12.30pm: Shafee suggests that MACC’s investigations were not independent, but Rosli replies that they were.

Judge Nazlan adjourns court for prayer and lunch and it will resume at 2.45pm. Shafee says that he may be a little late for trial after lunch.

12pm: Rosli says Suboh initially agreed that those were his signatures when he was shown them.

11.55am: Shafee asks Rosli about Suboh’s testimony in court on the 16 signatures which he claimed were forged by former SRC International CEO Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil. The signatures were on Rentas transaction forms.

11.50am: Farhan suggests that Najib had only personally used 1.9% of the total expenditure, to which Rosli snaps back: “That is your opinion.”

F: Does this show that Najib doesn’t have the intention to cheat or defraud? 

R: I disagree.

Shafee takes over cross examination from Farhan.

11.45am: Farhan shows Rosli a “thank you” note given to Rosmah by the wife of the former Qatar prime minister for her gifts. Rosli says he had not seen this letter in the course of his investigations, even when he had taken statements from Rosmah.

11.40am: Farhan then asks Rosli about Najib’s purchases in Italy. Farhan asks if he knows Swiss jeweller De Grisogono and whether he knew what Najib purchased there. Rosli says he didn’t know because he didn’t go there.

Farhan suggests that Najib had bought gifts there for a leader close to him. Rosli replies that Najib had admitted to that when he had his statement taken at the MACC.

11.35am: The MACC officer says he cannot determine if the wardrobe and the water tank Najib purchased for his house is for luxury or necessity as he had only investigated transactions concerning his case and nothing else.

11.25am: Rosli says he did not investigate payments Najib had made for charitable contributions such as payments made out to Yayasan charitable foundations.

Farhan then asks Rosli if he would agree with him that the replacement of a water tank in one of Najib’s houses was a necessity. Rosli says he was not sure.

11.20am: Farhan asks him about the money Najib had given to Jamek trading. Farhan suggests to Rosli that this was used for charitable works. Rosli agrees but said it wasn’t part of his investigation.

10.59am: Rosli agrees that the RM32 million was transferred into Najib’s accounts, and says it was from Permai Bina Raya’s account.

10.56am: They are going through Najib’s credit card transactions.

10.52am: Farhan asks Rosli about RM32 million that was transferred into Najib’s accounts.

10.45am: Court is in session. MACC’s Rosli Husain takes the stand.

Defence lawyer Farhan Read tells judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali that counsel Harvinderjit Singh is unable to make it to court today, and has handed over to him the task of cross-examining Rosli.

Farhan begins his cross-examination. – August 23, 2019.