KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s corruption case involving RM2.28 billion allegedly originating from sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) will begin on May 14.
High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah fixed 14 days for the trial after Najib’s counsel Harvinderjit Singh informed the court that the dates originally fixed for the case had been taken by the former prime minister's corruption case involving RM42 million in SRC International Sdn Bhd funds.
He said High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali who is presiding the SRC International trial, had fixed the dates for the 1MDB trial from April 15 to May 3, and an additional one week from May 6 to 10 for the SRC International trial.
He told the court that the remaining dates in May - between the 13th and 17th and the last week of that month - had been fixed for the trial of Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah’s money-laundering and tax evasion cases.
“I personally prefer to start with Shafee’s trial as the case is much lighter and was registered earlier,” he said.
Sequerah, however insisted that the trial dates for Shafee’s case to be fixed for the 1MDB case.
“We will fix the trial dates for Shafee’s case on another case management date,” the judge said.
He said there would be no further case managements after this as the case would go straight for trial.
The dates for the 1MDB trial has been fixed on May 14, 15, 17, 28, 29 and 31 and on June 10,11,12,13,14,18,20 and 21.
On Sept 20 last year, Najib, who is Pekan member of parliament, was charged with 25 corruption charges at the Sessions Court, involving RM2.3 billion allegedly from 1MDB.
Najib’s first four charges were under Section 23 (1) and 24 (1) of the MACC Act 2009, while the other 21 charges were under Section 4 (1) (a) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act 2001 (AMLATFA).
For the charges under the MACC Act, Najib, 66, is accused of using his then position as prime minister, finance minister and chairman of the 1MDB advisory board, to receive bribes on four occasions.
Meanwhile, the money-laundering charges include nine counts of receiving illegal proceeds, five counts of using illegal proceeds and seven counts of transferring the proceeds to other entities.
All the offences allegedly occurred at AmIslamic Bank Bhd’s Jalan Raja Chulan branch in Bukit Ceylon, here, between Feb 24, 2011 and Dec 19, 2014.