This came after Najib’s lawyer, Shafee Abdullah, who objected to the prosecution’s application to call Arul Kanda, tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday.

Co-counsel Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohamed said High Court judge Zaini Mazlan wanted to hear the application “as soon as possible” and fixed the hearing in two weeks’ time.

Earlier this week, the court postponed the hearing after it was told that Shafee was down with high fever and a sore throat.

Ad hoc prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram had said they had filed an application under Section 63 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act to summon Arul Kanda to testify on its behalf.

Section 63 states that whenever two or more persons are charged with an offence, the court may, on an application in writing by the public prosecutor, require one or more of them to give evidence as a witness or witnesses for the prosecution.

Sri Ram cited that Arul Kanda “has information in his possession that is relevant to Najib’s charge on the Feb 24, 2016 meeting and the events that preceded and followed after”.

Najib is standing trial for alleged abuse of power as the then prime minister and finance minister by attempting to obtain immunity from legal action and causing amendments to the finalised 1MDB audit report before it was tabled at the Public Accounts Committee meeting.

Arul Kanda is charged with abetting him.

The audit report trial is scheduled to resume on July 4 and 14.