Najib S Trial On Money Laundering Power Abuse Charges To Begin On April 15

---

It took an interpreter 30 minutes to read out all 25 charges on money laundering and power abuse linked to 1MDB against Najib Razak.KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has fixed a three-week trial from April 15 to hear Najib Razak’s 21 money laundering charges and four charges of power abuse linked to 1MDB
Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah fixed the date after the case was mentioned for the first time before him today
Najib was initially charged before Sessions Court judge Azura Alwi on Sept 20 but he applied for the case to be transferred to the High Court
Ad-hoc senior deputy public prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram told Sequerah that the prosecution was expected to take three weeks to complete its case and that includes time to cross-examine witnesses.“We have 52 witnesses on the list but not all will be called,” he told the court
Earlier, the charges were read again and Najib claimed trial
It took 30 minutes for an interpreter to read the charges and Najib merely nodded his head
Najib’s lead defence lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, who was reluctant to begin the trial in May, said he would be filing an application to disqualify Sri Ram as prosecutor
“We will file the application in the High Court next week,” he said
Speaking to reporters later, Shafee said the defence wanted to recuse Sri Ram because he was “totally in conflict of interest”
Najib is facing four counts of corruption in which he is alleged to have used his position to obtain gratification totalling RM2.3 billion and 21 charges of money laundering of a similar amount
The Pekan MP is said to have received and used the illegal money during his term of office between 2011 and 2014. - FMT

---