THE Kuala Lumpur High Court today allowed the prosecution’s application to amend three charges involving power abuse and money laundering in Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) case.

Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah said the prosecution’s case remained unchanged as only the amount of money was subject to amendment.

“There is nothing sinister or mala fide in this exercise (to amend charges) as alleged by the defence, and the amended charges do not prejudice the accused.

“The amendments are to be made pursuant to evidence led by the prosecution witnesses, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) analyst Adam Ariff Mohd Roslan (47th prosecution witness) and assistant director of the Anti-Money Laundering Criminal Investigation Division Foo Wei Min (48th prosecution witness). The prosecution was well within its right to amend the charges before it closes its case,” Sequerah said.

“In the course of the presentation of evidence from these two witnesses, it emerged that certain amounts of money were from unknown sources and cannot be set with certainty to be unlawful proceeds with reference to the fourth predicate charge,” the judge said.

The court ordered the three amended charges to be read out to Najib, who affirmed his not-guilty plea.

It also allowed the prosecution’s application to admit several bank documents linked to Foo’s testimony as evidence in the case.

On October 24, the prosecution told the High Court it wished to amend one of Najib’s four power abuse charges and two of his 21 money laundering charges, following the testimonies of the two witnesses (Adam and Foo).

For the power abuse charge, the prosecution wanted to amend the amount from RM49.9 million to RM44.6 million, while for the 10th money laundering charge, it sought to reduce the amount of money from unlawful activities Najib was accused of transferring from RM652.6 million to RM515.7 million.

The prosecution also applied to amend the 21st charge involving the transfer of funds, by reducing the amount of RM12.4 million to RM11.4 million.

Najib’s counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah requested today’s trial be vacated as the former prime minister was still unwell after contracting Covid-19 last week.

“My client informed me this morning he does not feel 100 % and requires today, with Your Honour’s kind consideration, to rest, and to start the trial tomorrow morning.

“Two of the lawyers in my team are also down with Covid-19 and to be fair to the court, all of us will do a test in the evening to ensure none of us are (Covid-19-)positive,” he said.

Deputy public prosecutor Kamal Baharin Omar did not object to the request.

The trial before Sequerah resumes tomorrow morning, with Foo to be cross-examined.

Najib, 70, faces four charges of using his position to obtain bribes amounting to RM2.3 billion belonging to 1MDB and 21 charges of money laundering involving the same amount. – Bernama, November 6, 2023.