Najib's 1MDB trial postponed as MySejahtera categorises him as PUS

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak's 1Malaysia Development Berhad's (1MDB) trial at the High Court here was postponed to tomorrow as his MySejahtera status appeared yellow, classifying him as a Person Under Surveillance (PUS).

Justice Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah vacated today's hearing after Najib's counsel Datuk Hariharan Tara Singh informed the court that the MySejahtera status for both Najib and his lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah remained as "PUS" and "casual contact" respectively, even after informing the Ministry of Health (MOH) of their COVID-19 test results.

Hariharan said, upon arriving in court earlier, Najib's MySejahtera status was stated as a PUS, while Muhammad Shafee's status was stated as "casual contact", but both had turned to blue (low-risk) status after the court security instructed them to refresh their MySejahtera profile.

"However, they were asked to refresh their MySejahtera profile again after entering the courtroom and their status reverted back to "casual contact" and PUS," said Hariharan.

Justice Sequerah then instructed both Najib and Muhammad Shafee to take the RTK Antigen test and to inform the MOH of the results, so that their status can be reassessed.

The judge then ordered the proceeding to resume tomorrow for the defence to update on both Najib and Muhammad Shafee's MySejahtera status.

Meanwhile, deputy public prosecutor (DPP) Ahmad Akram Gharib said two witnesses who were supposed to testify this week, namely former 1MDB chairman Tan Sri Mohd Bakke Salleh and Najib's special officer Datuk Wan Ahmad Shihab Wan Ismail, could not make it to the court.

"We have received an instruction from senior DPP Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram to apply for the trial to be conducted in a hybrid manner," said Ahmad Akram.

Hariharan however objected against the proposal to conduct the online hearing and pointed out that the prosecution had almost one month to prepare for the new witnesses to be in court.

Justice Sequerah said he would decide on the hybrid trial application tomorrow.

Najib, 68, is facing four charges of using his position to obtain bribes totalling RM2.3 billion from 1MDB funds and 21 charges of money laundering involving the same amount.

-- BERNAMA