KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah has labelled the latest criminal breach of trust (CBT) charges against his client as ‘foolish’.
Shafee, when met after the proceedings, said the charges concerned executive decisions made by Najib, who was then Finance Minister, and former Treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Dr Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah.
He said the decisions were to rechannel finances which had been earmarked for a specific purpose to other more important objectives.
“Basically all six charges state that you have allocation of funds for a certain purpose but you made the decision to divert the funds to pay for another purpose.
“The Finance ministry secretary-general and it’s minister along with various committees made decisions to reallocate and reprioritise the usage of the funds for more urgent purposes.
"That doesn't mean the previous allocation remains vacant. That will be met by subsequent funding. It's just a question of making priorities. So you can see the silliness of these charges," he said.
He said all the charges had called into question the executive decisions taken by the duo to avoid a trigger of defaults which would have been disastrous to the national economy.
Shafee said the defence looked forward to the trial as “we are going to have fun”.
“I think the defence in this case will have fun, and the prosecution will have a nightmare.
“You can see the silliness of the charges as you been charged for making management calls.
“We want this case to go on fast because we think this is a joke,” he said, adding that the defence team would also consider to transfer the case to the High Court.
Earlier, Najib and Irwan claimed trial to six counts of CBT involving over RM6.6 billion of government funds.
The duo only nodded to indicate that they understood the charges and claimed trial to the offences before Sessions Court judge Ahmad Azman.
They face a maximum of 20-years jail, whipping and fine if found guilty of the offence.
The case will be up for mention on Nov 29.
