Trial In Case Of Ex-Malaysian Prime Minister Postponed Due To Prosecutor's Death - Reports

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 30th January, 2023) The corruption trial against former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak over a multi-billion-dollar scandal around the national investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) has been suspended until February 2 due to the death of lead prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram, The Star news portal reported on Monday.

Collin Lawrence Sequerah, chairman of the Malaysian High Court's panel of judges, which is handling 25 corruption and 21 money laundering charges against the former prime minister, ruled to adjourn the hearings over the lead prosecutor's death, the media outlet reported.

"All of us in the prosecution team are seeking your permission to vacate the matter today and tomorrow to allow us to attend both functions (Sri Ram's wake and cremation). He was our boss, our team leader and he was like a father to all of us. We humbly seek your lordship's indulgence for an adjournment on the basis that the prosecution team would have to discuss the purpose of redistribution of the various focus of works vis-a-vis the witnesses," Deputy Public Prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib was quoted as saying by The Star.

The former prime minister's defense had no objection to the adjournment and expressed its condolences to the prosecution team, the media outlet reported.

The court was initially scheduled to hear on Monday one of the key witnesses in the case, Joanna Yu, who for a long time was Najib's personal account manager at AmBank, one of the country's leading banks. The interrogation of the witness was rescheduled for February 2, according to the newspaper.

In 2020, a Malaysian court sentenced Najib to 12 years in prison and a $46 million fine for illegally receiving around $10 million from a former 1MDB subsidiary unit. The former official attempted to overturn the verdict in the court of appeal but failed.

Billion-dollar embezzlement from the 1MDB fund was investigated by law enforcement agencies in more than 10 countries. It marked the largest political scandal in the Malaysian history. As a result, a government coalition that had ruled the country since independence from the United Kingdom lost the general elections in 2018 for the first time. The former prime minister and his wife were arrested shortly after the elections.