Najib's FB post: Do you know what was amended in the audit report?
Although Najib Abdul Razak is serving a 12-year prison sentence, his social media accounts continue to be updated on a regular basis.
The latest posting on his Facebook touched on the Court of Appeal’s decision which maintained the former prime minister’s acquittal on the charges of abuse of power involving the alleged tampering with the 1MDB audit report.
According to the post, former attorney-general Tommy Thomas should not have hauled him to court over this matter in the first place.
“If there are ‘supporters on that side’ who are still not satisfied because Najib has been freed in this case, please ask them: ‘Do you know what was amended in the audit report? Why don’t you know?’” it stated.
The post stated that during the trial, the testimonies of prosecution witnesses had shown that the amendment to the audit report was “inconsequential, minor and trivial.”
“In fact, even former auditor-general Ambrin Buang had said that he had executed his duties without pressure or orders from any quarters,” it added.
Ex-auditor-general Ambrin Buang
On March 3, High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan acquitted Najib after ruling that the prosecution had failed to prove a prima facie case against him.
The judge also agreed with the former premier’s lawyer that there was “no causal link” or no connection between the amendments made and the alleged gratification.
“There is no evidence to suggest or prove that the second accused had explicitly directed the amendments made to exonerate him from any civil or criminal liability. He was merely concerned that the report could be spun politically,” the judge said.
The changes which became the subject of the court case included removing the mention of the existence of 1MDB's two different financial statements for the financial year 2014 and the auditor-general's recommendation for further investigations to be taken as well as removing the mention of businessperson Jho Low’s presence in a 2009 board meeting.
Not the first time
The post also said this is not the first time the Court of Appeal maintained an acquittal by rejecting the prosecution’s request for an extension to file an appeal.
On Sept 8, the decision to acquit a person accused of causing the death of one police personnel and injuring another while driving under the influence of alcohol stood because the prosecution was late in filing an appeal.
The suspect, who was convicted at the Sessions Court, was later acquitted by the High Court on May 31.
On March 3, High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan acquitted Najib after ruling that the prosecution had failed to prove a prima facie case against him.
The judge also agreed with the former premier’s lawyer that there was “no causal link” or no connection between the amendments made and the alleged gratification.
“There is no evidence to suggest or prove that the second accused had explicitly directed the amendments made to exonerate him from any civil or criminal liability. He was merely concerned that the report could be spun politically,” the judge said.
The changes which became the subject of the court case included removing the mention of the existence of 1MDB's two different financial statements for the financial year 2014 and the auditor-general's recommendation for further investigations to be taken as well as removing the mention of businessperson Jho Low’s presence in a 2009 board meeting.
Not the first time
The post also said this is not the first time the Court of Appeal maintained an acquittal by rejecting the prosecution’s request for an extension to file an appeal.
On Sept 8, the decision to acquit a person accused of causing the death of one police personnel and injuring another while driving under the influence of alcohol stood because the prosecution was late in filing an appeal.
The suspect, who was convicted at the Sessions Court, was later acquitted by the High Court on May 31.
This morning, the Court of Appeal struck out the prosecution’s move to initiate an appeal against Najib and former 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy’s acquittals after the prosecution had failed to file their petition of appeals within the required timeframe.
Court of Appeal judge Hadhariah Syed Ismail, who led the three-member bench, said the prosecution had until July 6 to file their petition of appeals.
"But that was not done. So today we made an order for the two notices of appeals to be struck out. We follow the law," she added.
Najib was charged with using his position as then-prime minister to order amendments to 1MDB’s final audit report before it was presented to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in 2016 to prevent any action against him.
Arul Kanda was charged with abetting the former prime minister in making the amendments.
No comments:
Post a Comment