Court denies Najib discovery of documents on Zeti’s family, Jho Low
Published on: Thursday, December 08, 2022
By: FMT
Najib Razak was denied access to statements by witnesses to the police and MACC as an accused cannot have access to investigation papers.
The Court of Appeal has dismissed Najib Razak’s appeal to obtain discovery of documents concerning companies controlled by former Bank Negara Malaysia governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz’s family and fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low.
Justice Nordin Hassan said the documents were not relevant to the charges faced by the former prime minister in his ongoing 1MDB criminal trial in the Kuala Lumpur High Court.
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Najib is facing four charges of using his position to obtain bribes totalling RM2.3 billion from 1MDB funds, and 21 charges of money laundering involving the same amount.
“There are no appealable errors by the High Court judge to warrant an intervention by this court,” said Nordin.
He also said Najib was not entitled to obtain statements of witnesses interviewed by the police and Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers during investigations into the matter.
“The appellant cannot have access to the statements as there is a real danger of tampering. This is also akin to handing over investigation papers to an accused (which cannot be allowed),” he said.
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Nordin, who delivered the unanimous judgment of the court, said it was also for the prosecution to decide who it wanted to call as witnesses to prove its case.
“If they take the risk of not calling a material witness, an adverse inference will be drawn and charges against an accused could fail,” he said.
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He said trial judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah had also correctly used his discretion under the law to dismiss Najib’s application to compel the prosecution to call certain witnesses.
With regards to obtaining former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner’s mobile phone and password, Nordin said these were not in the prosecution’s possession. In the circumstances, he said, the court would not act in vain.
In an online proceeding on Oct 25, a three-member bench chaired by Justice Kamaluddin Said heard Najib’s appeal with its decision scheduled for today.
Justice Ahmad Nasfy Yasin was the other judge on the panel.
Najib, 69, had appealed against a decision of the High Court on July 12 last year dismissing two discovery applications brought to compel the prosecution in his 1MDB trial to disclose banking documents linked to Zeti’s family on claims that they had received money from Jho Low.
Najib also wanted the prosecution to provide banking statements from several companies, including Aktis Capital Singapore Pte Ltd, Country Group Securities Public Company Ltd, Acme Time Ltd (BVI), Butamba Investments Ltd, and Central Holdings Ltd, believed to be related to Jho Low’s and Zeti’s families.
The jailed former prime minister also filed another application seeking to obtain a confidential settlement agreement between the government and the Goldman Sachs Group entered in 2020, and transcripts of a forensic report on Leissner’s phones.
Meanwhile, ad hoc prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram told reporters the prosecution intended to call another seven witnesses, including Zeti, to testify in the 1MDB trial before closing its case.
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