Day off from court for Najib as lawyer is ill

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Razak is having a day off from attending his trial today after his lawyer was taken ill.

High Court Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali had no choice but to adjourn the case to tomorrow after being informed about it.

A counsel from Najib's defence team, Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohamed informed the court that Harvinderjit Singh was supposed to continue with the cross examination of a prosecution witness.

However, he said Harvinderjit had been taken ill and was unable to attend the proceedings.

He said Najib's lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, too, was unable to make it today as he was tied up in another case before a judge who was retiring.

Mohd Nazlan then enquired about the rest of Najib's lawyers, who have been conspicuously missing from the courtroom for the past one week.

They included former Solicitor General II Datuk Mohd Yusof Zainal Abiden and Datuk Kamarul Hisham Kamaruddin.

However, Wan Aizuddin was unable to provide an explanation on that.

“I have no instructions over that,” he said.

Lead Deputy Public Prosecutor Datuk V Sithambaran then said he had no objections to the case being adjourned.

He said the prosecution was confident of completing the trial on schedule despite today's setback.

A total of 54 witnesses have testified in the trial, which has entered its 43rd day, so far.

Najib, 66, is facing charges of criminal breach of trust, abuse of power and money laundering involving RM42 million of SRC International funds.

He faces 20 years’ jail and fine for the offences.