Judge Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil, who is chairing a three-member bench, fixed May 6 to allow the ex-prime minister’s legal team to finish their submissions in response to arguments raised by the prosecution.
The hearing that began on May 6 lasted for 14 days, making it one of the longest in an appeal proceeding.
However, the additional day was given only after a visibly upset Karim lectured lawyer Harvinderjit Singh to be precise and to stop repeating his submissions to enable the bench to follow his argument.
The lawyer was raising the issue of admissibility of documents from the prosecution during the trial under Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali.
Karim, who was sitting with Has Zanah Mehat and Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera, interjected and asked the lawyer how long he was going to take to complete his points.
Harvinderjit said it would probably take another day and Karim asked the lawyer to focus on substantive issues.
“Go to the main point and address critical issues like what your co-counsel (Muhammad Shafee Abdullah) did earlier this morning,” said Karim.
He said Harvinderjit should be raising points “that will stick in our minds”.
He said at this juncture, the lawyer should be making submissions that were more effective than those made by ad hoc prosecutor V Sithambaram.
“Otherwise, we will be confused,” he said, adding that they had to complete this case as they had other appeals lined up to be heard.
Karim then remarked that this hearing had started before the fasting month.
Sithambaram also remarked that if there was no control, the hearing would “continue until Hari Raya Haji”, which falls in June.
Karim then fixed an additional day on May 6.
Najib, who is Pekan MP, is accused of abusing his power as the prime minister by giving government guarantees on SRC International’s RM4 billion loan from Retirement Fund Inc.
He was also charged with three counts of criminal breach of trust and three money laundering charges in relation to RM42 million belonging to SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB.
In July last year, Nazlan sentenced him to 12 years’ jail and fined him RM210 million after finding him guilty of the seven charges.