Malaysia’s AG hints at more charges against Najib

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian Attorney-General Tommy Thomas on Wednesday (July 4) said he does not rule out more charges against Datuk Seri Najib Razak, as he expressed confidence that the prosecution has a "strong prima facie" case against the former prime minister.

“Today’s case is the first IP that came to my table when I clocked in three weeks ago," he said in using an acronym for investigation papers from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

"No doubt, there will be more IPs."

After working on the case for the past three weeks, Mr Thomas said he and his 12-man team finally had enough proof to bring the case to court.

"We have a strong prima facie case which we intend to prove in the trial," he said.

The nation’s top lawyer also said more cases related to state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) would be pursued this year.

“(There will be more) 1MDB (cases) down the road. You can expect the MACC to investigate more,” he added.

But Mr Thomas declined to comment on additional future charges at this point.

“We can’t say, we can’t comment on that because it depends on when the next investigation paper comes.

“This is as things stand today,” he concluded.

Najib, 64, was charged at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Wednesday morning with abuse of power and three counts of criminal breach of trust as part of an investigation into a transaction involving SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB.

He claimed trial after pleading not guilty to all charges.

Judge Mohd Sofian Abd Razak agreed to a temporary gagging order requested by Najib's lawyer, Mr Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, which prohibited the media from commenting on the merits of the case.

The order however does not cover news reporting on court proceedings.

The judge fixed Aug 8 for a hearing on the official application.

Mr Thomas said his office will apply to set aside the gag.

“We objected to the gag order. We are not sure whether the court has jurisdiction to order the gag," he said.

However, Mr Shafee said it was aimed at ensuring a fair trial and avoiding prejudging the case.

Any breach of the order would be akin to contempt of court, he added.

"It is to ensure nobody makes unfair comments about the merits of the case in order to get it published by media. The gag order is basically for media not to print," he told reporters.

“Doesn’t matter who spoke about it, it can be the chairman of MACC, it can be the commissioner of MACC, could be the minister of finance.

“It could be Datuk Seri Najib himself, if he keeps on saying he’s innocent because of this, because of that. He too is prohibited, so that let the court decide.”

On whether the prosecution has a good case against Najib, Mr Shafee countered: "I'm happy we have a good defence. You'll see the unfolding of the defence when the trial starts."

He added: “My client is not worried about trial, not worried about defence provided that he is given a fair shake at the trial — which we are sure, looking at the judge today, we are quite sure it’s going to be a fair trial.”

Still, he lamented that he was not given any documents by the prosecution except the charge sheets containing the charges against Najib. He also questioned the government’s legal team readiness in going ahead to prosecute the former premier.

“When they charged my client, you would have thought they must be ready. After all, Tan Sri Gani Patail and his gang said we were ready in July 2015,” he said in reference to alleged charges that were purportedly ready under then Attorney-General.

“If you were ready in July 2015, how come you all were not ready today and why did it take you so long to charge?

“So it tells you something, that the attempt to so-call charge him in 2015 was a little suspicious, if it’s true there was an attempt to charge him,” he claimed.

Mr Shafee then claimed that it was the prosecution instead of the defence that asked for one month for the cases to be mentioned again, also alleging that the prosecution had not provided documents for the defence team to refer to in preparation for trial.

“If you don’t have documents given to you to see the detailed allegation, how are you going to defend yourself?” he said.

He noted that lawyers typically spend months going through a lengthy process of exchanging documents with the other side in civil lawsuits for a ruling that is purely financial in nature, contrasting it with criminal cases that involve penalties such as death or lengthy imprisonment.

While noting that Mr Thomas had in court cited a provision where the documents were only required to be given before trial, Mr Shafee argued that it should be “reasonably before trial” and that it should be given as speedily as possible.

He said he is not worried if the prosecution tried to disqualify him over alleged payments from 1MDB that he had purportedly received in the past.

"They can try, I am not going to make their jobs easier. If they do try, they are going to get some shocks." AGENCIES