Oct 25 hearing for Najib’s bid to obtain banking documents
PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has set Oct 25 to hear Najib Razak’s appeal to obtain banking documents related to US investment bank Goldman Sachs and former Bank Negara governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz’s family. The date was fixed following case management held before Court of Appeal deputy registrar Khairi Haron…
PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has set Oct 25 to hear Najib Razak’s appeal to obtain banking documents related to US investment bank Goldman Sachs and former Bank Negara governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz’s family.
The date was fixed following case management held before Court of Appeal deputy registrar Khairi Haron today.
Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib confirmed the hearing date.
Yesterday, a three-member panel of the court led by P Ravinthran directed the case management after allowing an application by Najib’s defence team to postpone the appeal hearing.
During the proceedings, lawyer Effa Azuin Aidrul Hisham requested the court to postpone the hearing as senior counsel Shafee Abdullah was down with fever.
Najib is seeking to obtain the banking documents for use in his trial involving alleged misappropriation of RM2.3 billion from 1MDB.
He is appealing against the decision of the High Court on July 12 last year to dismiss two of his discovery applications 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 fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low.
Najib filed the application on March 24 last year to compel 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 and Zeti’s family.
He also filed a second application on April 7 last year seeking to obtain the confidential settlement agreement between the government and Goldman Sachs Group entered in 2020, and transcripts of the forensic report on the phones of former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner.
Najib is on trial on 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.
The trial is ongoing in the High Court before judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah. — Free Malaysia Today