Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah told lawyer Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohammed that former 1MDB chief executive officer Mohd Hazem Abdul Rahman was not an expert on handwriting.

This came after Wan Aizuddin questioned the witness on 1MDB Global Investment Limited’s instruction letters to BSI Bank to transfer funds to Cistenique Investment Fund and Devonshire Funds Ltd in 2013.

Wan Aizuddin had asked Hazem to identify if the signatures on the letters looked like those of former company chief finance officer Azmi Tahir and former executive Geh Choh Heng, who were both authorised signatories for 1MDB Global Investment Limited’s account.

Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib objected to the line of questioning, saying Hazem was not an expert witness to answer such a question.

However, Wan Aizuddin proceeded to ask Hazem if he thought Azmi and Geh’s signatures looked like “cut and paste”.

Sequerah interjected, saying: “I think what you are asking him is beyond his knowledge. I don’t think he is in a position to answer (questions on signatures).”

To that Wan Aizuddin said the defence will raise the question on signatures with Azmi when he gives his testimony in the future.

Najib is standing trial on 25 charges of abuse of power and money laundering over alleged 1MDB funds amounting to RM2.28 billion deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.

The hearing continues tomorrow.