Zaharah said she had replied to the prosecution’s request in a letter and expected the relevant parties to be informed.

“The courtrooms in the Palace of Justice are not designed to hold trials,” she told reporters after attending the elevation ceremony of nine judges promoted to the Court of Appeal and Federal Court yesterday.

The Palace of Justice, which houses both courts, generally hears appeals from the lower courts.

The prosecution had asked Zaharah for permission as the top judge is also responsible for staff and building administration in Malaya.

Ad-hoc deputy public prosecutor Sulaiman Abdullah told High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali last month that it would be more suitable to hold the trials in Putrajaya as most of the prosecution witnesses were from there.

“The courtrooms in the Palace of Justice are bigger, and the public will have better access to follow the trial,” he said, adding that security and crowd control would be better as well.

He also said it would be more convenient as the prosecution would need to transport bundles of documents to court from the Attorney-General’s Chambers in Putrajaya.

On July 4, Najib was charged with money laundering and criminal breach of trust in the transfer of RM42 million into his account from former 1MDB unit SRC International.

He was also accused of abusing his power as the prime minister by giving government guarantees on SRC International’s RM4 billion loan from Retirement Fund Inc.

On Aug 8, he was charged with three counts of money laundering related to the same transaction under the Anti-Money Laundering, Prevention of Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001, better known as Amla.

The offences were allegedly committed between Dec 24 and 29, 2014.

Najib’s trials for both cases have been fixed from Feb 18 next year.