Hour-long argument during case mention
KUALA LUMPUR: What was supposed to be a simple case mention for Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s graft-related charges turned into a war of words that lasted almost an hour.
His lawyers and the prosecution team argued mainly about the format of the documents served.
The dispute also touched on the appointment of Datuk Sulaiman Abdullah as the lead prosecutor in the former prime minister’s trial next year.
Najib’s lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said the documents were served in a rather unusual way – a CD-ROM – and that some of the documents contained could not be read or opened. He even offered to pay for the cost of printing the documents.
He said a CD was given to Najib on Aug 8 and when Najib visited his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) headquarters in Putrajaya on Wednesday, an officer attempted to serve another CD.
“This is probably the only case, as far as I’m concerned, where a 51A document is given through a CD.
“In all other cases, we are given documents that are copied and bound, not only to us but also to the court,” Muhammad Shafee said, adding that some documents could not be opened and that it was confusing and had no indexing.
The case mention at the High Court here before Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali began with Sulaiman raising the issue of serving documents under Section 51A of the Criminal Procedure Code, saying the prosecution had been “severely unfortunate”, being unable to do so despite all efforts.
“My learned friend seems to imply that something sinister is being done by the prosecution.
“We’ve done the best possible and we’re not in any way trying to steal a march on the accused or do anything underhand.
“The law requires us to serve the accused and that is what we’ve been trying to do.
“We are also serving (the documents) to my learned friend, but he seems to share the characteristics of his client in being quite unable to be present when they are required,” Sulaiman said, adding that there had also been no response from Muhammad Shafee on suggestions
by the prosecution for a pre-trial conference.
Najib’s counsel Harvinderjit Singh said they were not making any implications of sinister motives.
Sulaiman said while the defence clarified that they did not make any accusations against the prosecution, the overall attitude of the defence made it seem as if the prosecution was preparing a sinister trap for them.
Muhammad Shafee said the documents should be given to them in a proper format so that it was something they could digest and that it was also a standard practice for documents to be served to the counsel or solicitor, not to the client.
“They can charge us if they feel the government’s money is so little now. It’s not something conventional, but if they feel they should charge us, so be it.
“We want to move on with the trial. Don’t say that we are dragging our feet. Do what you have to do. You are investigator, you are prosecutor, so serve us a proper copy,” Muhammad Shafee said.
Sulaiman said the prosecution would need two weeks to prepare the hard copy of the documents.
“If it’s the quality of the documents, that’s what we’re stuck with. It’s not that they purposely darkened or obliterated the documents.
“To say that (the documents cannot be read), how do we know this is indeed what the documents are? This is close to insulting.
“Get on with the trial, get on with the law and stop painting all these insinuations and wasting time,” Sulaiman said.
He also took a swipe at Muhammad Shafee later, saying: “There is no point going into hails of debating and so on when I can equally say that we’re not here to sit and discuss the forensic trials of Tan Sri Shafee Abdullah.”
On another matter, Sulaiman also told Justice Mohd Nazlan that the prosecution had written to Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Zaharah Ibrahim to transfer the venue of Najib’s trial to the Palace of Justice in Putrajaya, citing various reasons such as security considerations and greater access to the public.
Justice Mohd Nazlan set Oct 31 for case management.
Speaking to reporters after the case mention, Sulaiman said the transfer of venue to Putrajaya would be better for crowd control.
“Here (Kuala Lumpur Court Complex), we have to block off lifts and all that. It’s inconvenient to the public and other lawyers,” he said.
He said there was an enormous amount of documents for the case.
“We are in great duty to get this over with. The nation wants closure on this, so the sooner things end, the better. We’re not taking any short cuts. We fight according to the law,” Sulaiman added.