Putrajaya, 6 May – Former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who is facing four charges of abuse of power and 21 charges of money laundering involving more than RM1 billion misappropriated from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), has reached the final stage of his trial at the High Court after nearly six years since it began on 28 August 2019.
The trial resumed this morning, and Najib’s lead counsel, Tan Sri Shafee Abdullah, announced that the defence had completed presenting all its witnesses following the conclusion of testimony by handwriting expert Cheng Yew Kum.
This afternoon, Shafee informed presiding judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah that the defence had called a total of 26 witnesses over 58 trial days during Najib’s defence stage.
The judge then ordered both prosecution and defence to submit their written submissions by 30 September, and their respective replies by 10 October.
The judge also scheduled oral submissions to be heard from 21 to 24 October and 27 to 31 October, after which a date will be set to deliver the verdict on whether Najib is guilty in this case.
Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah had previously ruled on 30 October 2024 that the prosecution had established a prima facie case for all 25 charges, thereby ordering Najib to enter his defence.
Najib began his defence by testifying under oath from the witness stand on 2 December 2023, becoming the first defence witness. His testimony took 25 days and concluded on 24 January.
He first took 12 days to read out his written statement — spread across four volumes and totaling 695 pages — and then underwent 10 days of cross-examination by the prosecution starting 8 January, followed by 3 days of re-examination by the defence.
Najib was initially charged at the Sessions Court on 20 September 2018, but pleaded not guilty. The High Court later approved his application on 31 October 2018 to transfer the case for trial at the High Court.
The trial officially commenced on 28 August 2019 at the High Court and spanned 235 days of hearings. The prosecution closed its case on 30 May 2023 after calling 50 witnesses.
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