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KUALA LUMPUR: Former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), Mohd Hazem Abdul Rahman, was not yet able to give testimony at the trial as the defense team representing Datuk Seri Najib Razak has moved to dispute your witness statement as a rumor.
He is the 10th prosecution witness in Najib’s trial involving the alleged misappropriation of RM2.28bil from 1MDB, and was scheduled to take the stand on Monday (September 7).
However, Najib’s lead attorney, Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, raised his objection to Hazem’s 118-page statement, which he argued was inadmissible and hearsay.
Shafee cited lines from the statement that have yet to be read to the court in its entirety, where Hazem stated that fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, had told him (Hazem) that 1MDB was created to channel funds. Najib’s political party, Umno.
In the statement, Shafee said the defense had highlighted the lines in yellow and these lines “should be removed.”
“The evidence is hearsay with maybe one or two lines that are 50-50. Hazem will say ‘this is what Jho Low told me.’ And if we ask him if that’s the truth, he will answer ‘why not? you ask him (Jho Low)? ‘
“But we can’t ask Jho Low why he’s not here,” Shafee added.
Then, Shafee made an oral request that the lines of the witness statement be omitted.
In his response, Deputy Prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib opposed the request, saying that Hazem’s statement was not a rumor.
He said the statement was admissible as it was “part of the transaction.”
“I refer you to the charges facing the defendants. After all, this is what we are trying to demonstrate.
“He is accused of some act and for us to prove it, we have called witnesses. In doing so, they have to tell a story,” Akram said.
Without the disputed paragraphs, Akram said it would not be a complete witness story.
Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah said the court has to decide on the admissibility of the disputed lines before calling the witness to the stand.
He is expected to deliver his decision on Tuesday (September 8).
During the height of the 1MDB scandal, not much was known about Hazem, who joined 1MDB as Chief Operating Officer (COO) in August 2012.
He took over as CEO of Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi on March 25, 2013, before resigning in January 2015.
Later, Hazem was replaced by Arul Kanda Kandasamy.
Najib, 67, faces four counts of abusing his position to obtain a bonus totaling RM2.28 billion in 1MDB funds and 21 counts of money laundering involving the same money.
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