Shafee disputes Najib
ruling, claims judge relied
on ‘hearsay’ evidence
Defence lawyer says the trial judge relied ‘wholesale’ on hearsay evidence when ruling that the prosecution had proved a prima facie case against Najib Razak.
Expressing “extreme” disappointment with the court’s decision, Shafee claimed that much of the evidence accepted by Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah was hearsay.
“This is probably one of the rare, if not the only case, where hearsay evidence was taken wholesale. Everything that was said was taken wholesale.
“We are going to prepare for the defence, we will take the judgment and respect it, but I’m just so surprised. This is probably the only case that I’ve ever had where, at this stage, I didn’t even win on a single point.
“But we are not giving up, we are going to fight this case and we are more determined because of the decision today,” he told a press conference at the court complex here.
Earlier, the High Court ruled that the prosecution had established a prima facie case against Najib on the 25 1MDB charges.
The former prime minister was called to enter his defence on four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.28 billion in 1MDB funds deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.
During the proceedings, Shafee confirmed that Najib would give evidence on oath in his defence.
At the press conference, he said at least 11 witnesses would testify in the defence’s case.
A witness testifying their direct knowledge is NOT Hearsay evidence.
ReplyDeleteIt is hearsay if they testify what somebody told them eg. Shafee representing Najib demanding that allegation of Zafrul telling Zahid about the existence of the Royal "Addendum" being accepted to order the review of his Royal Pardon.