Anti-climax in Najib’s SRC trial hearing today
KUALA LUMPUR: The trial of former premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak today came to an anti -climax as the defence team verbally applied to vacate today since two of their lead counsels were not available.
Harvinderjit Singh, who was supposed to continue with the cross-examination on former AmBank relationship manager Joanna Yu, is ill, said co- defence lawyer Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohammed.
The other lead counsel, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah is occupied in a trial before a High Court judge who is due to retire next week, Wan Aizuddin added.
“On that basis, we humbly seek Yang Arif’s indulgence for today’s date to be vacated and we can go on with the trial tomorrow,” says Wan Aizuddin.
When queried by Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali on the possibility of other members of the defence team conducting the trial, he was told that co-counsel Farhan Read was also unwell.
Wan Aizuddin also confirmed that there was no instruction for the other members of the team to conduct the trial.
Deputy public prosecutor V Sithambaram did not object to the reasoning as he did not want to be unreasonable.
He told the court that Harvinderjit informed him of his illness at 6.30am. He also apologised as other prosecution witnesses were not ready to testify.
Nazlan then adjourned the hearing today. It will be continued tomorrow.
Yu was supposed to continue her testimony today.
Najib is facing three criminal breach of trust, three money laundering and power abuse charges over SRC International’s RM42 million.
