KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Razak's 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) trial was postponed following the change in his MySejahtera status from 'person under surveillance (PUS)' to 'low risk' and then to 'PUS' again, this morning.
High Court judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah adjourned the matter to tomorrow.
The former prime minister's lawyer Datuk Hariharan Tara Singh earlier explained to the court about the MySejahtera status hiccup faced by his client and his fellow counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah whose status was flagged as 'casual contact'.
"When they came in, Shafee's status was 'casual contact while Najib's status was 'PUS', so they were stopped by the court's security who then instructed them to refresh their MySejahtera status.
"Miraculously, after they refreshed their MySejahtera, their status turned blue (low risk) and were allowed to enter the court.
"Upon arriving here (in the courtroom), they were asked to update their status again when it flipped back to the original position. They were asked to step outside the court and are now at the lobby," he said.
Sequerah then ordered for Najib and Shafee to take a Covid-19 Rapid Antigen Kit (RTK) self-test and for them to inform the Ministry of Health (MoH) of their result so that their status could be reassessed.
"I will wait until the results come out. If it turns back to blue, we can proceed (with the trial) physically," he said.
The court then went into recess while waiting for the duo's test results.
When the matter was called up again, Hariharan said although they did the self-test which came out negative, and updated their MySejahtera profile, the status did not change.
"According to the guildeline by KKM (health ministry), if you are within the casual or close contact, it appears that you need to undergo quarantine for a period of 10 days.
"They have to do self-quarantine as a social responsibility. It is in the standard operating procedure," the lawyer said.
Earlier, deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib said the two prosecution witnesses supposed to be called to take the stand during trial this week who were former 1MDB chairman Tan Sri Bakke Salleh and Najib's special officer Datuk Wan Shihab Wan Ismail were unavailable.
However, he said the 12th and 13th witnesses, former 1MDB chief executive officer Mohd Hazem Abdul Rahman and the company's former chief financial officer Azmi Tahir were present today for the defence to continue its cross-examination on them.
He said in light of the situation, he received instructions from lead prosecutor Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram to apply for the trial to be conducted remotely, adding that the court has full discretion to order for such proceedings in the interest of justice.
He proposed a hybrid proceeding for the trial in which the judge and members of the prosecution team will appear physically in court, while Najib and his legal team will attend the proceeding virtually.
This, he said has already been done by the Court of Appeal in the hearing of Najib's application to introduce new evidence in his SRC International Sdn Bhd's appeal as well as the delivery of the decision of the appeal on Dec 7 and Dec 8.
"This has been practiced and we saw it in the Court of Appeal, last week. The hearing went on, and the decision was delivered (via hybrid proceeding) and there's nothing wrong with that," he said.
Hariharan objected to the application saying that to cross-examine a witness virtually will be unfair and prejudicial to his client.
He said in a remote proceeding, factors like the complication of the case and the duration of the proceeding which also includes urgency of the proceedings needed to be considered.
"In reference to the type of proceeding the prosecution cited in the Court of Appeal decision, there were no witnesses in that proceeding and you just apply the law and the existing facts and submit.
"In that
proceeding, there's no such thing as looking at the demeanour of the witness and their reaction (during the cross-examination).
He added it was illogical and unreasonable for the prosecution to suggest for such proceeding as the witnesses to be cross-examined were important witnesses and looking at the list of witnesses, Azmi is the only financial officer in 1MDB to be called to the stand.
He also pointed out that the prosecution had a month to prepare for the witnesses to appear in court to testify.
Sequerah fixed tomorrow to decide whether to allow the prosecution's application for a hybrid proceeding for the trial.
The KL Courts Complex only allows those with 'low risk' or blue status in their MySejahtera to enter to enter the building.
