In his closing submissions, defence counsel Wan Azwan Aiman Wan Fakhruddin contended that the SRC case cannot serve as a template for the current proceedings, as both cases rest on entirely different facts.

“Each case must be assessed on its own merits,” Wan Azwan told Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah.

He said Najib’s defence in the SRC trial had relied on four letters purportedly issued by a Saudi royal figure pledging financial support, which the court rejected on grounds that they were not corroborated by other evidence.

“(However) in this case, the donation letters were acted upon by AmBank and submitted to Bank Negara Malaysia for due diligence.

“As there was no finding that the letters were forged, he (Najib) is entitled to rely on them afresh,” he said.

Wan Azwan also repeated his earlier argument that the four abuse of power charges brought against Najib were defective, pointing out that each charge contained several dates, involved various locations, and listed multiple alleged wrongdoings.

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

The hearing continues.