Oct 25 set for Najib’s appeal hearing for documents on Goldman Sachs, Zeti’s family
PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has set Oct 25, to hear Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s appeal, to get banking documents related to the United States Investment bank Goldman Sachs and former Bank Negara governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz’s family.
The hearing date was fixed following a case management held before Court of Appeal deputy registrar Mohd Khairi Haron yesterday.
Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib when contacted confirmed that the hearing date has been fixed on Oct 25.
On Thursday, the Court of Appeal’s three-man panel led by Justice Datuk P Ravinthran directed a case management to be conducted yesterday after allowing Najib’s defence team’s application to postpone the appeal hearing.
In Thursday’s court proceedings, lawyer Effa Azuin Aidrul Hisham, a lawyer in Najib’s defence team, requested the court to postpone the hearing as senior counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah was down with fever.
The former Prime Minister (Najib) is seeking to obtain banking documents for use in his trial involving misappropriation of RM2.3 billion funds from 1Malaysia Development Bhd (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 her family allegedly received monies from fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low.
Najib filed a court order on March 24, last year, to compel the prosecution to provide several banking statements from 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 in his 1MDB case.
The Pekan Member of Parliament also filed a second application on April 7, last year, seeking to obtain the confidential settlement agreement between the government and Goldman Sachs Group which was entered in 2020 and transcripts or forensic report on the phones of former Goldman Sachs partner in Asia, 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 Justice Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah. — Bernama