IT was just a matter of time before Najib Razak replaced his team of lawyers with two men with the skill sets to handle high-profile criminal cases.

Malaysia Decides understands that the former prime minister started making plans to replace Harpal Singh Grewal with Yusof Zainal Abideen and M. Puravalen early yesterday and executed the change when the two senior criminal lawyers agreed to defend him‎.

It finally dawned on Najib that the government was moving with haste to charge him with criminal offences related to the transfer of RM42 million from SRC International into his personal bank accounts. 

While adept in the courtroom, Harpal is not a criminal lawyer. There was also some concern from Najib over some of the statements made by ‎the lawyer over the past few days.

Yusof, a former magistrate and Sessions Court judge, was the lead prosecutor in Anwar Ibrahim’s second sodomy trial. 

He was the long-time head of prosecution in the Attorney-General’s Chambers, before becoming solicitor-general II.

Yusof has been in private practice for the past six years and was one of the lawyers who represented Anwar on a Bersih 3.0 charge. 

He has worked in the past with Puravalen, a senior criminal lawyer. 

Puravalen or Valen to his friends was engaged by Rosmah Mansor a few days ago. It is unclear if he will continue to represent her, given the possibility of the government bringing charges against her and some of these charges being related to her husband. – May 22, 2018.