Shafee says sorry for media statement on Najib's graft case

Najib Razak’s lead counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah today apologised to the Kuala Lumpur High Court for a media statement he recently made on the former prime minister's RM2.3 billion 1MDB corruption case.

However, the lawyer also insisted that the media statement was accurate and not an exaggeration.

"My Lord, I profusely apologise to the court if there was a misconstruction of the media statement. The statement was accurate and with no exaggeration.

"The press statement merely said this ‘the prosecution didn't provide us with the documents in this case, but we dug out and found these documents’. That was how we said the prosecution failed to disclose," said the lawyer.

Shafee said the statement was in response to queries by reporters about the money deposited into Najib's accounts.

"The reporters had been asking, is it true that the two transactions came from Saudi Arabia?" he said.

Here, senior deputy public prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram responded, saying his only complaint was that Shafee could have raised the matter in court. 

"My learned friend (Shafee) could have raised this before your Lordship. Does he (Muhammad) expect us to go to the media and say Shafee is wrong?

"I’m perfectly happy if he makes the complaint before your Lordship. Any complaints about the way we (prosecution) conduct the case can be brought before your lordship. Please don’t discuss with the media, just liaise with us," said the former Federal Court judge.

After hearing arguments by both parties, High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah said: "This will be the end of the matter as far as the media statement is concerned. We can let matters rest as they are."

Yesterday, Sri Ram warned Shafee against conducting a trial of the case in the media.

He was responding to a media statement by Shafee on Monday which highlighted the inflow of funds into Najib's account in February and June 2011, amounting to about RM60.6 million (about US$20 million) from Saudi royal Prince Faisal Turki Al Saud. 

The defence claimed that the funds were part of a gift to Najib from the former governor of Madinah province, Saud Abdulaziz Majid Al Saud.
 
Shafee also said the prosecution had only highlighted the two transfer transactions, but not five other transfers into Najib's account between August 2011 and August 2012 which were allegedly from Prince Turki and the Riyadh finance ministry amounting to about US$180 million.

Shafee had also included letters from the former governor addressed to Najib, stating the different sums of donations made to the former prime minister.

The trial then proceeded with the 39th prosecution witness, former AmBank non-executive director Cheah Tek Kuang, taking the witness stand to be cross-examined by Shafee.

Najib, 69, faces four charges of using his position to obtain bribes amounting to RM2.3 billion belonging to 1MDB and 21 charges of money laundering involving the same amount.