KUALA LUMPUR Muhammad Shafee Abdullah and Gopal Sri Ram clashed briefly again when the defence counsel claimed the ad-hoc prosecutor was interrupting to save a key witness in the Najib Razak 1MDB corruption trial.
Sri Ram responded by saying Shafee was asking irrelevant questions in his cross-examination of Ismee Ismail, a former director of the sovereign wealth fund.
The argument came about when Shafee asked Ismee whether the 13th prosecution witness agreed that former CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi had done “certain things” to deceive the board.
Shahrol, also a prosecution witness, had given his testimony from Sept 23, 2019 to Sept 3, 2020.
Sri Ram protested that the question was unfair to Ismee as he would not have known Shahrol’s intention.
The former Federal Court judge said it was for the court to determine the question of intention.
Shafee charged that Sri Ram was interrupting his cross-examination to “protect” Ismee.
“This witness needs no protection. I am only objecting as irrelevant questions are being posed,” Sri Ram retorted.
Trial judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah then remarked that Ismee might not know the answer as it was a matter of speculation.
Shafee told Sequerah that Ismee had to answer as the witness was at that time a 1MDB board member and would have known the basic facts about what happened then.
The judge allowed Shafee to continue with the cross-examination.
Last week, deputy public prosecutor Mohamad Mustaffa P Kunyalam also raised an objection to the line of questioning directed at Ismee saying it was not only irrelevant but also unfair.
Najib’s lawyer, Hariharan Tara Singh, had asked Ismee about Shahrol’s decision to proceed with the issuance of RM5 billion in Islamic bonds for the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA) despite Terengganu ruler Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin’s order to suspend the bonds issuance.
“Are you aware of Shahrol’s ‘disobedience’?” Hariharan had asked.
Mustaffa stood up to tell Sequerah that questions relating to Shahrol and his conduct should have been raised when Shahrol had taken the stand previously.
Two days ago, Sri Ram criticised the defence team for posing irrelevant questions to Ismee and asked them to do better to save the court’s time.
“I don’t see the relevance. I have been very patient. If it’s going to be suggested, with all the documents put to him, there must be some relevance to the questions.
“So, I will be very grateful if my learned friend can explain to us and His Lordship the relevance of questions which have already been put to Shahrol,” Sri Ram had said.
Sequerah had then said the line of questioning seemed to be going around in circles and the defence should just go for the jugular.
“Just confront him (Ismee) with what you want to put as your case and leave the rest for your submission,” the judge had said.
However, Shafee remarked that if the court found that the trial was going in circles, it would be because Shahrol and others had made it that way to confuse everyone.
Ex-prime minister Najib Razak is charged with 25 counts of money laundering and abuse of power over alleged 1MDB funds amounting to RM2.28 billion deposited in his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.