THE prosecution will call its 57th and last witness today as the Najib Razak trial over SRC International Sdn Bhd funds enters its 51st day.

Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission investigating officer Rosli Husain will be called to the stand to give an account of his questioning of AmBank, Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP) and SRC International personnel linked to the events that led to the former prime minister being put on trial for seven criminal charges.

Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali allowed yesterday’s hearing to be adjourned early after ad hoc prosecutor V. Sithambaram agreed that the prosecution would with the defence go through 600 exhibits linked to the witness outside court to prepare for today.

Meanwhile, yesterday’s witness, former second finance minister Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah testified that he resigned in 2016 after 1Malaysia Development Bhd CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy failed to follow through with Husni’s rationalisation plan for the state investment fund.

The plan recommended the sale of equity or assets in Edra Energy, Bandar Malaysia and Tun Razak Exchange, as well as non-core assets.

The 67-year-old witness testified that Najib who had ordered him to come up with the rationalisation plan. He said its implementation, however, was handed over to Arul Kanda, whose actions were approved by Najib.

Husni said another contributing factor to his resignation was Najib’s instructions for him to transfer to another ministry. Husni resigned on June 27, 2016.

He said he had told the media then that his resignation had nothing to do with SRC International and 1MDB.

“I was not telling the truth. I was covering for the PM,” he said.

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

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

The former prime minister is represented by a dozen lawyers led by Muhammad Shafee Abdullah while Attorney-General Tommy Thomas leads the prosecution. 

The Malaysian Insight brings you today’s proceedings live:

5.11pm: Court is adjourned. It will resume at 2pm on Tuesday.

5.08pm: Sithambaram tells judge Nazlan that the prosecution seeks to withdraw its application on Najib’s Facebook postings about the case.

Sithambaram adds he was advised to do so.

Shafee says that he is happy with the withdrawal application.

Nazlan says that posting evidence borders on contempt of court and advises that in the future, anyone intent on making such postings should seek legal counsel.

3.44pm: Rosli says he tried to get the original documents given by Ihsan Perdana. When given the books, MACC officers did not know whether they were original or copies.

He details how he obtained documents from KWAP regarding the RM4 billion loan given to SRC International.

3.39pm: MACC’s Rosli takes the stand again.

3.38pm: The cross-examination ends with Harvinderjit marking some of the chat logs and emails that were not submitted as evidence previously. The witness is let go from the stand.

3.19pm: Harvinderjit begins his cross-examination of Shuzairizman.

3.11pm: Court resumes. Bank Negara Malaysia officer Shuzairizman Shuib, the prosecution’s 46th witness, is called to the stand.

He is verifying BlackBerry chats that he personally extracted from Yu’s mobile device. The chat logs were newly recovered by Shuzairizman.

12.28pm: Court adjourns for lunch and will resume at 3pm.

12.09pm: Court resumes with Rosli identifying SRC International documents.

11.53am: Court breaks for five minutes at Sithambaram’s request to confer with the witness.

11.29am: Rosli says that SRC International chairman Ismee Ismail had brought to his interview with MACC the minutes of a 2013 meeting which he had kept in his car.

Rosli says he did not sign the minutes and that MACC does not have the minutes which Ismee had handed over.

11.10am: Rosli says on July 6, 2015, Prem Raj had met with him to hand him the documents involved in the case. He handed over two SRC International’s secretarial books and one from its investment arm Gandingan Mentari.

The books contained appointment letters and minutes of meetings, among other things.

Dressed in a blue baju kurung, with sunglasses perched on her head, Najib’s daughter, Nooryana Najwa, is seated behind her father in the public gallery.

Former Pahang menteri besar Adnan Yaakob has left after appearing briefly in the court.

11am: A report was made on July 3, 2015 regarding SRC International by Prem Raj, assistant commissioner of forensic accounting in MACC.

Rosli says he was investigating the case under the MACC Act, AMLA and the Penal Code.

He says there were five people involved in the case who had died, Azlin Alias, Noriah Ahmad, Zainal Abidin Osman, Ahmad Norhisham and Izat Izairy.

10.56am: Rosli says in the course of his investigations, there were more than1,000 documents he had to sift through as evidence.

The documents were from banking and financial institutions, Finance Ministry, SRC International, Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd and Gandingan Mentari Sdn Bhd.

He was assisted by other officers in the forensics accounts department of MACC, among others.

10.51am: Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission investigating officer Rosli Hussain takes the stand.

He is now in the special operations division of MACC. In this case, Rosli was the investigating officer. He was commissioned to the case in July 2015.

10.49am: Court is in session.

Harvinderjit Singh for the defence asks for a document from the Companies Commission of Malaysia to be marked by the court. – The Malaysian Insight, August 9, 2019.