1MDB-Tanore trial: Shahrol to return to witness stand after four-month hiatus

KUALA LUMPUR (March 12): Former 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) CEO Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi will return as the ninth prosecution witness today in the 1MDB-Tanore trial against former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, after the trial took a break since November last year.

The proceedings before High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah is scheduled to start at 2.30pm today as lead defence counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah will continue his cross-examination of Shahrol.

Shahrol has been on the witness stand since September last year, when he took six days to read and explain his 270-page witness statement, during which he testified how the decision-making in 1MDB was carried out when it conducted its business from 2009 to 2014.

He served as the strategic development company’s chief between 2009 and 2013 and was a board member until 2016.

From Oct 7 last year, Shafee and other defence lawyers started their cross-examination of the ex-CEO of 1MDB.

The cross-examination is expected to continue from where it left off in November after Shahrol's testimony was cut short when he fell sick.

At the time, Shahrol testified that it was fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, who suggested Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil's name for the position of 1MDB chief financial officer when executive director Casey Tang declined the post.

Nik Faisal subsequently became one of the key figures in 1MDB's then-subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd when he was appointed its CEO and managing director.

In the 1MDB-Tanore trial, Najib faces four charges for using his position to obtain bribes totalling RM2.3 billion from 1MDB funds and 21 charges of money laundering involving RM4.3 billion.

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