Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib said the charges state that the accused, as an officer of a public body, used his position for personal gratification.
He said the charge was never about receiving gratification, an offence under Section 16 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009.
Akram said the dates and places stated in the charges are consistent, in line with Section 153 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC), and sufficient to give Najib fair and reasonable notice of the case against him.
Najib’s legal team has taken the position that the charges are defective, ambiguous, and clouded with duplicity.
Akram, however, said any alleged irregularities in the details contained in the charges, even if they exist, are curable under Sections 156 and 422 of the CPC.
“The charges are sound and the trial has proceeded in full compliance with the requirements of justice and procedural law,” he said in submissions before Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah.
He said the defence had no difficulty cross-examining the prosecution’s 50 witnesses and called 26 defence witnesses after Najib was told to enter his defence.
He said the prosecution’s opening statement on Aug 28, 2019 had already set out what the charges faced by the accused involved and how the prosecution would establish its prima facie case.
Najib is charged under Section 23 of the MACC Act for abusing his public position as prime minister and finance minister, which Akram said was never challenged by the defence.
He said the prosecution has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Najib used his position to cause or influence decisions and actions within 1MDB that ultimately resulted in the receipt of gratification into his personal bank accounts.
Najib’s defence had failed to rebut on a balance of probabilities the statutory presumption drawn against him under the MACC Act.
“The accused’s sworn testimony did not provide any credible explanation for the flow of gratification. His bare assertion was that he ‘believed’ the monies were donations,” he said.
He said Najib’s defence was no more than a bare denial, and his explanations were implausible, contradictory, and unsupported by contemporaneous evidence adduced in court which showed that the timing and pattern of fund inflows directly coincided with 1MDB transactions.
Akram said there was a total lack of due diligence or inquiry of the level expected from a prime minister and finance minister who had received enormous sums of money in his personal accounts.
He said there was an absence of any genuine corroboration for the so-called “Arab donation” claim, a defence that was dismissed in the SRC International corruption case, which saw the Federal Court affirm Najib’s conviction and sentence.
Najib, 72, is standing trial on four charges of abuse of power and 21 charges for money laundering over funds amounting to RM2.28 billion which were deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.
The hearing continues tomorrow.