NAJIB Razak’s SRC International trial continues today after yesterday’s hearing was vacated when senior defence lawyers failed to show up due to illness and other commitments.

Yesterday, the Kuala Lumpur High Court was told that defence counsel Harvinderjit Singh, who was to continue his cross-examination of former AmBank relationship manager Joanna Yu, was on medical leave.

Lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah was in another court attending to a breach of contract suit by the National Feedlot Corp against Public Bank.

Other senior lawyers on Najib’s team – Farhan Read, former solicitor-general Yusof Zainal Abiden, S. Devanandan and Kamarul Hisham Kamaruddin – were also absent.

Ad hoc prosecutor V. Sithambaram told the court that he received a phone call at 6.30am from Harvinderjit on the latter’s illness. Sithambaram, however, said other witnesses slated to testify next week could not be called up as it was too short notice.

After assurances by Sithambaram that the prosecution’s case could be wrapped up before the stipulated deadline of August 16, justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali set August 9, a Friday, as a full-day replacement. He also said the defence must produce the medical certificate.

Today, Harvinderjit is expected to continue his cross-examination of Yu, focusing on her relationship with fugitive financier Low Taek Jho and former SRC International CEO Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil.

Yu yesterday said she met both men in 2008, a year before 1Malaysia Development Bhd was formed.

The 48-year-old said she met Low when he was raising funds for Majestic Masterpiece Sdn Bhd, before he was made a special adviser to the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA), a state wealth fund that was taken over by the Minister of Finance Inc in 2009 and renamed 1MDB.

Yu said she met Nik Faisal during a deal in which Saudi oil firm PetroSaudi International Ltd sought to acquire Utama Banking Group Bhd (UBG), held by Majestic Masterpiece.

Yu said she had contacted Low to expedite cash payments to prevent former prime minister Najib’s cheques from bouncing, adding she never took instructions from Low on other transactions.

She told the court she was asked to leave AmBank in 2015, where she had worked for two decades, due to increasing pressure following Bank Negara’s raid on the bank’s Raja Chulan branch in Kuala Lumpur on July 6, 2015.

The situation worsened after AmBank was fined RM53.7 million in November that year for failing to report suspicious transactions related to Najib’s accounts.

Her fellow relationship managers – Daniel Lee and Krystle Yap – also left later, she said, adding that she later took AmBank to court.

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

He faces three counts of criminal breach of trust, three counts of money laundering and one count of abuse of power.

Najib, 66, is represented by a dozen lawyers led by Shafee, while Attorney-General Tommy Thomas leads the prosecution.

The Malaysian Insight brings you today’s proceedings live.

3.28pm: Nazlan says that because the cross-examination relies heavily on the BlackBerry Messenger chats in question, he allows adjournment until 9am on Monday.

3.25pm: Harvinderjit asks Nazlan for some time to examine the chat logs as not doing so may hamper his cross-examination. He aks that the proceedings be adjourned for the day. Sithambaram duly obliges.

3.10pm: Court takes a 15-minute break for the defence to examine the Blackberry Messenger chats.

2.45pm: Court resumes after the bomb scare.

Sithambaram addresses the judge, telling Nazlan that the defence is seeking to produce parts of the Blackberry Messenger chats that are not in evidence. He tells Nazlan that they are not included as they are not relevant to the case.

He tells the judge that the remaining chats, however, are available for the defence to study. He says the defence should have the benefit of reading these chats.

2.35pm: Sentul police chief Assistant Commissioner S. Shanmugamoorthy says that after an hour-and-a-half-long search of the premises, police found nothing suspicious.

“We searched the areas (in the court) that saw interesting cases today, but we found nothing. We will continue investigating the matter, but the main (search) is done.”

Shanmugamoorthy earlier told reporters that the Taman Tun Dr Ismail police station received a call about 11am today on a bomb threat at the courts. The caller did not identify himself, he says. 

On whether police have determined if the call is bogus, Shanmugamoorthy says, “I won’t say it’s fake. But for the time being, we haven’t found anything.” 

He says police will track down the caller. 

2.30pm: The trial will resume after police give the all-clear following this morning’s bomb scare.

The court complex has now been reopened to the public.

12.48pm: It is believed the bomb threat originated from a call from a member of the public. The source of the threat has yet to be ascertained. 

Sources say that it will take the police some time to sweep the entire complex.

12.29pm: Judge Nazlan adjourns proceedings after a bomb threat is detected. Everyone is asked to vacate the court. He says he does not know what time the trial will resume.

People inside the court complex begin walking out of the building, with many waiting at its entrance. Police have cordoned off the entrance to the courts complex and are not allowing anyone in.

12.14pm: Yu tells the court that Low had insisted that all account statements be picked up from the bank branch, and that they never to be sent to Najib’s residence, as was standard banking practice.

In one text to Yu when she suggested that they be sent to Najib’s house, Low replied: “No no no! Don’t do that. Too much sensitive information.”

12.02pm: Harvinderjit asks Yu about the codename “MNR”, used to refer to Najib’s account.

Harvinderjit: (Jho Low) didn’t tell you that this account was to be used for illicit funds?

Yu: No. He did not tell me that.

Yu says the reason for “MNR” codename was so that people would not be able to see Najib’s name on any of the statements or transactions.

11.42am: Harvinderjit: Did Jho Low tell you at the time that the reason for (opening) the account was that Najib was expecting donations from Saudi Arabia?

Yu: He briefly mentioned that there were incoming funds but I don’t recall him saying ‘donations’.

She says that a previous trial witness, former AmBank managing director Cheah Tek Kuang, had handled the opening of Najib’s account. Yu says she merely prepared the papers to open the account.

11.40am: Harvinderjit asks Yu if she has read Bradley Hope and Tom Wright’s book, Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World.

He asks her if she has ever sent the authors of the book excerpts of the chats between herself and Low. She says no, she has not been in contact with them.

Harvinderjit tells her he will get back to that later. He now asks her about the account-opening process. She says that Low had, in early 2011, enquired about opening the accounts for Najib.

11.08am: After a 20-minute break, Yu’s cross-examination continues.

10.09am: Harvinderjit begins going through Putra Perdana’s statement of accounts with Yu.

9.57am: Yu says Low was one of her and the bank’s biggest clients in terms of business brought in. Yu adds that she did not earn any commission from the deals she had with Low and only received bonuses, which are highly regulated by the bank, based on her performance.

9.50am: Harvinderjit: Was Jho Low a person who reacts to things rather than plans things out? 

Yu: Errr… I guess I would say yes. 

Harvinderjit: With (regard to) the accounts being overdrawn and all the last-minute transactions; could you say that Jho Low was unprepared?

Yu: I guess so, but they didn’t know when the accounts would be overdrawn.

9.45am: Harvinderjit asks Yu if she thinks that Nik Faisal was taking instructions from Low with regard to Najib’s current accounts. Because Nik Faisal was the mandate holder of the account, Harvinderjit asks her if Nik Faisal played a subordinate role to Low. 

Yu: I have no way of saying that. We could only do account transactions as directed by Nik Faisal.

9.26am: The defence asks Yu whether Low had sent her a message instructing her to clear all her chats.

Yu: Yes, but I didn’t clear them because I didn’t know how to.

9.23am: They begin going through chat logs of Yu’s BlackBerry mobile device, which she had used to contact Low, Nik Faisal and others in dealings related to SRC International. 

9.14am: Trial begins with Joanna Yu taking the stand.

Harvinderjit submits his medical certificate to the court for his absence yesterday. Harvinderjit continues his cross-examination of Yu. – July 25, 2019.