THE 1Malaysia Development Bhd-Tanore trial, set to start today, is now put on hold pending the Covid-19 RTK-Antigen test results of former prime minister Najib Razak and his lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.

Upon arriving at the Kuala Lumpur High Court’s main entrance this morning, lawyer Hariharan Tara Singh said Najib was flagged on MySejahtera as a “person under surveillance” and Shafee a “casual contact”. 

Both statuses do not allow them to enter the court complex. 

However, Najib was seen at the public gallery in the courtroom for a short while before he was seen leaving again. 

“They were stopped by a court security guard, who apparently went inside the court and after coming out again, she instructed both to refresh their MySejahtera status. 

“Miraculously, when both refreshed, it turned blue. With that, they were allowed to enter,” Hariharan told the court. 

The defence and prosecution had then argued before judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah on how to proceed with the trial before Sequerah decided to stand down, ordering Najib and Shafee to do their RTK tests and inform the Health Ministry of their results. 

The defence is hoping to resume the trial on Thursday, while the prosecution requested for hybrid proceedings.

Earlier this morning, in another court, Najib’s wife Rosmah Mansor, who is accused of corruption, had her case postponed for the third time in two weeks after the High Court was told that she remained flagged as a close contact of a Covid-19-positive person.

Rosmah’s lead counsel Jagjit Singh informed judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan that his client’s status remained unchanged from last week and apologised for compelling the court to yet again delay proceedings.

Justice Sequerah, meanwhile, said if Najib and Shafee’s test results come back negative, their status may be changed to “no symptoms” and the trial can then resume.  

“We can carry on instead of wasting time here,” the judge said. 

The 12th and 13th prosecution witnesses – former chief financial officer Azmi Tahir and former 1MDB director Ismee Ismail – were scheduled to be cross-examined by the defence today.

Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib also told the court that the next two prosecution witnesses – former 1MDB chairman Mohd Bakke Salleh and Najib’s aide Wan Ahmad Shihab Wan Ismail, were unavailable to attend court this week. 

Akram said the court could consider conducting the trial remotely. He cited how the Court of Appeal had done so last week for Najib’s appeal in the SRC International case. 

Last Tuesday, Shafee had requested to postpone the SRC hearing after one of his lawyers tested Covid-19 positive and Najib was a close contact.

The Court of Appeal rejected the request and ordered the SRC hearing to continue online or an arrest warrant will be issued against Najib immediately.

Hariharan today objected to Akram’s suggestion, saying it would be prejudicial to Najib. 

“The (SRC) situation does not have witnesses. There is no issue of looking at the demeanour of the witness or the reaction of the accused. And we may need to clarify with the witness and the accused. 

“Assuming we have a remote communication technology, even if we were muted, my understanding is the speaker function will still be on. If we were to check something with the accused and whatever he says, it will be heard by everyone. 

“There is no more privileged communication as such. It’s just illogical,” Hariharan said.

The lawyer proposed for the trial to resume physically on Thursday with the cross-examination after Najib ends his 10-day quarantine. 

Najib, 68, is facing 25 charges of abuse of power and money-laundering regarding RM2.28 billion in 1MDB funds deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014. 

The Pekan MP faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. – December 13, 2021.