News by Emir Zainul

Justice Mohamed Zaini Mazlan ruled that Najib had failed to show how the charge against him is oppressive.

During cross-examination today, defence counsel Datuk N Sivananthan, who is representing 1MDB's former president Arul Kanda Kandasamy, asserted that although there were suggestions and requests to drop certain parts of the audit report, the ultimate decision on removing and/or tampering with the report was still the onus of Ambrin.

However, Ambrin defended that since the order came from the government, he felt the pressure to comply with the requests.

PSOSL’s lawyer Alex Tan told the court that there were some new developments in the UK and for this reason, it was seeking a short adjournment to the hearing of its application.

Former auditor-general Tan Sri Ambrin Buang today disagreed with lead defence counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah's contention that the Feb 24 meeting, chaired by then chief secretary of the government Tan Sri Ali Hamsa, was in fact an exit conference meeting. Instead, Amrin said the meeting was an "abnormal" practice.

The High Court today struck off the civil lawsuit filed by former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and five others against Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin over the termination of their membership in Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu).

According to the ninth prosecution witness in the 1MDB-Tanore trial, former 1MDB CEO Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, Hazem's curriculum vitae (CV) was handed to him by fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho (Jho Low), who claimed that his appointment was recommended by Najib's principal private secretary, the late Datuk Azlin Alias.

Testifying on the witness stand at the 1MDB-Tanore trial, its former chief executive officer Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi said the amount was raised by its subsidiary 1MDB Global Investments Ltd, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) set up to raise funds.

The money was to be used as seed capital for the development of the Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) project along Jalan Tun Razak.

During the cross-examination by defence counsel Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohammed today, Shahrol maintained that he was not aware of the schemes at the material time, but conceded that it was a fraud in hindsight.

Datuk V Sithambaram: We don't know when Najib will be put into prison. It all depends on the decision of the Federal Court and the Court of Appeal. We estimate that both Appellate Court and Federal Court will take four to five months each, so if the records are ready and judgement is ready, approximately a year's time.

"I am very disappointed with the court's decision regarding this case because our defence team led by Tan Sri Shafee has given arguments that can lead to many doubts in this case. But [they were] not accepted by the judge.

"Nevertheless, the appeal to the Court of Appeal will be made as soon as possible and I hope that this appeal will be heard as soon as possible. Because I want to continue the effort to clear my name and I shall continue this struggle."