THE Attorney-General’s Chambers has vigorously objected to an application from former prime minister Najib Razak to postpone his trial for crimes linked to the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal.

In a letter to the presiding judge Nazlan Mohd Ghazali sighted by The Malaysian Insight, the AGC prosecution division chief Manoj Kurup objected to Najib’s adjournment application filed on Tuesday.

“We wish to bring to His Lordship’s attention our vigorous objection to the defence’s application to postpone the scheduled trial… and that the defence’s application for an indefinite postponement is frivolous and would cause unreasonable delay to the scheduled trial,” Manoj said.

The reason for the adjournment, as filed by Najib’s lead counsel Shafee Abdullah on Tuesday, was for the court to first settle three interlocutory matters before trial.

The three matters referred to a criminal appeal in relation to Najib’s gag order application; a criminal appeal in relation to Najib’s application for the discovery of documents and statements; and a criminal appeal in relation to the production of lead prosecutor Sulaiman Abdullah’s letter of appointment to lead the prosecution. 

Najib has sought an indefinite postponement of the trial pending the appellate court’s disposal of the appeals. 

Najib’s lawyer said in the application for an adjournment on Tuesday that the court’s determination of the appeals was necessary to mount “an effective defence”.

As it was, Manoj said in the letter to Nazlan, the trial was set to take place in February and March after the defence refused the judge’s suggestion to move the trial forward to October and November last year.

After hearing Najib’s gag order application, and with the agreement of all parties, Nazlan had scheduled trial to begin February 12. 

“In view of the above, we wish to reiterate our objections to the Defence’s application to postpone the trial and to stress that the Defence had well over seven months (from as early as July 4, 2018) to prepare their defence, and such an attempt to definitely postpone the trial would, in view of the public interest and the importance of this trial, must be rejected by this Honourable Court,” Manoj wrote.

Najib faces seven charges in relation to misappropriating RM42 million from SRC International Sdn Bhd, a former subsidiary of 1MDB.

He was charged on July 4 with three counts of criminal breach of trust (CBT) and one charge under the MACC Act. On August 8, he was slapped with another three charges in relation to the same case.

Lawyers have questioned the necessity of adjourning the trial, pointing out that the defence has had at least seven months to prepare for it.

If found guilty on the charges related to the SRC International case, Najib could face jail time of between two and 20 years, and potentially whipping and fine.

In total, Najib faces 39 charges including tampering with the auditor-general’s report on the troubled state fund, as well as CBT in relation to dealings with the International Petroleum Investment Company. – January 17, 2019.