“Fake” meeting minutes admitted as evidence
KUALA LUMPUR: Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali allowed documents believed to contain minutes of discussions of SRC International director Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil and former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on 7 Sept 2011 marked as evidence despite objection from the defence who claimed the documents were fake.
Harvinderjit Singh cited the “dubious” circumstances surrounding the document, including the date of its surrender to the MACC being unknown.
“He is not the maker (of the document), (this is) secondary evidence, he said it is a given copy,” the lawyer told the court while questioning former SRC International CEO Tan Sri Ismee Ismail.
“We object as we were given the document as late as May 2019. This was given to the MACC at an unknown date, and not given to us.
“The circumstances of this document are dubious. We are of the view that this is a fake document… unless my learned friend admits to marking of evidence.”
In response, deputy public prosecutor V Sithambaram said that all the documents were seized by the MACC, and that the very existence of the meeting minutes means that it can be marked as evidence.
Sithambaram added that the defence can still challenge the validity of the minutes later.
Ismee also told the court that the contents of the minutes were briefed to SRC International’s board of directors during a 13 Sept 2011 meeting which were incorporated into its own minutes.
However, he also agreed to a suggestion by deputy public prosecutor Ishak Mohd Yusoff that only Nik Faisal and Najib would be able to verify the contents of the meeting minutes.
