The chairman of the three-man Court of Appeal bench, Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil, said they have exceeded the time allotted to them as they should have finished their submission last week.
“You have to keep your promise. Just highlight the main points,” he said when lawyer Farhan Read told the bench he needed until noon tomorrow to complete his submission.
Ad hoc prosecutor V Sithambaram said the defence had “eaten into our time and we need to swallow them.”
He then agreed to allow Farhan to take the entire day up to 3pm tomorrow to complete his submission. The prosecution will begin afresh on Wednesday.
Last week, Abdul Karim also reminded lawyer Harvinderjit Singh, also a member of Najib’s legal team, to stop repeating himself during his submission.
The judge, who is sitting with Has Zanah Mehat and Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera, said there would be two breaks at 11am and 1pm before the proceedings ended at 3pm due to the anticipated beginning of the fasting month tomorrow.
Hearing was fixed for 12 days from April 5 to 22 with four days allotted to the defence and prosecution.
Both parties were given two days each to make the final round of submission.
Earlier, Farhan submitted that Najib’s charge for abuse of power could not stand as gratification must be instantaneous under Section 23 (1) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Act 2009.
He said Najib chaired two Cabinet meetings in 2011 and 2012 to approve two government guarantees for SRC to obtain RM4 billion loans from a government pension fund.
The lawyer said the gratification only came about between December 2014 and February 2015 when RM42 million was said to have been deposited into his bank account.
“It was fallacious for the trial judge to call for his defence for abuse of power when the gratification was not instant,” he said.
Farhan said Najib had no pecuniary interest in SRC when the government guarantee was approved.
He said although Najib was also the finance minister and adviser emeritus of SRC, he was not in control of the company which was placed under Ministry of Finance Incorporated.
Najib is accused of abusing his power as prime minister by giving government guarantees on SRC International’s RM4 billion loan from Retirement Fund Inc.
He also faced three criminal breach of trust and three money laundering charges in relation to RM42 million belonging to SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB.
Last July, High Court Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali sentenced Najib to 12 years’ jail and ordered him to pay a RM210 million fine after finding him guilty of seven corruption charges in relation to RM42 million belonging to SRC International.