Wednesday, October 30, 2024

Shafee disputes Najib ruling, claims judge relied on ‘hearsay’ evidence

FMT:


Shafee disputes Najib

ruling, claims judge relied

on ‘hearsay’ evidence

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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.

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Free Malaysia Today
Lawyer Shafee Abdullah expressed ‘extreme disappointment’ with the High Court ruling today which ordered Najib Razak to enter his defence to 25 charges in the 1MDB case. (Bernama pic)

KUALA LUMPUR
Lawyer Shafee Abdullah has disputed the High Court ruling calling for Najib Razak to enter his defence to 25 charges of abuse of power and money laundering involving 1MDB funds.

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.

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