Datuk Seri Najib Razak arrives at Kuala Lumpur High Court August 19, 2019. — Picture by Ahmad Zamzahuri

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 19 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s highly anticipated RM2.3 billion 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) corruption trial scheduled to start today has been tentatively fixed for August 26 to be heard at the High Court.

Ad hoc prosecutor Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram, who is leading the prosecution team, informed the High Court that Najib’s 1MDB trial would not be able to proceed today for several reasons.

“Although today has been fixed for hearing, we are unable to proceed.

“The SRC trial is not over and the state of the case is that the last witness is still under examination in chief.

“We are expecting for that case to be completed by the end of this week,” he said.

Sri Ram said the trial was also unable to proceed due to administrative difficulties as the prosecution was not able to serve 12 of the witness statements until Friday.

The final reason, Sri Ram said was that the prosecution was only able to serve 15 bundles of additional documents to the defence this morning.

Sri Ram then suggested to the court to commence the 1MDB trial on September 3 for these reasons alone.

High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah then fixed August 26 for the 1MDB trial to commence after hearing submissions from both the defence and prosecution.

Sequerah also fixed case management on Thursday (August 22), during which he will decide, once and for all, if the 1MDB trial will begin on August 26 or September 3.

“I’m prepared to be reasonable but if you need time, I can stand down and adjourn it for now.

The trial will proceed on Monday but I will hear you out on Thursday,” he said.

Under the 1MDB trial, Najib is facing a total of 25 charges, namely four counts of abusing his position for his own financial benefit totalling almost RM2.3 billion and the resulting 21 counts of money-laundering.

Sequerah earlier attempted to persuade the prosecution to begin trial by requesting the opening statement to be read and the calling of informal witnesses.

However, Sri Ram said this would not be possible as Najib was due to appear before another High Court for his SRC International trial.

Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah earlier argued that the defence needed time to scrutinise the additional documents and seconded Sri Ram’s suggestion to start the trial on September 3.

“We will try to impress you on why the trial should not start on Monday and should start on September 3,” he said.

The High Court previously set August 19 to 29, the entirety of September and October except for Fridays, and the first two weeks of November to hear Najib’s 1MDB trial pending conclusion of his ongoing SRC International corruption trial.

Najib is currently on trial at the High Court for seven money laundering and criminal breach of trust charges over RM42 million in SRC International, a former subsidiary of 1MDB.

The 57th and final prosecution witness, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Senior Assistant Commissioner Rosli Hussain is currently taking the stand in the SRC International trial.

Najib’s SRC International hearing before High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali resumes this afternoon in Kuala Lumpur.