Najib’s bid for bank documents in 1MDB case to be heard on May 20

The Kuala Lumpur High Court has set May 20 to hear former prime minister Najib Razak’s bid to seek a court order compelling the prosecution to produce several bank statements and other documents for his defence team in his RM2.3 billion 1MDB case.

When contacted by reporters, deputy public prosecutor Mohamad Mustaffa P Kunyalam said the date was fixed by judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah during case mention today.

“The court has ordered the prosecution to file their reply to Najib’s affidavit by April 26 and they (Najib) will need to file their reply to the prosecution’s affidavit on May 5,” he said, adding that the court has also ordered both parties to file their written submissions by May 17.

On March 24, Najib’s defence team led by Muhammad Shafee Abdullah filed a notice of motion claiming, among others, that the documents sought were under the custody of the prosecution or of other entities.

In an affidavit affirmed by Najib to support his application, the Pekan MP said the documents were vital and relevant to his 1MDB trial as they were not made available to his defence team before his case began.

Najib claimed that some of the statements and documents were linked to the companies believed to be related to fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho or Jho Low and the family of former Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz.

The documents he sought include bank account statements for Aktis Capital Singapore Pte Ltd, Country Group Securities Public Company Ltd, ACME Time Ltd (BVI), Butamba Investments Ltd, and Central Holdings Ltd.

Najib is also seeking the companies’ certificates of incumbency, declarations of the identities of the companies’ beneficial owners, registers of members, registers of directors as well as correspondence between the banks and the companies in respect of their transactions, including emails, telegraphic transfers, remittance forms, payment advice, transaction reports, payment orders, credit advice and bank memos.

The application would compel the revelation of these documents from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and BNM, or any other entities having custody of the documents.