High Court dismisses prosecution's application to impeach Najib

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here has dismissed the prosecution's application to impeach former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak after ruling that there was no material contradiction between two of his statements.

The statements in question were one that he gave to the court and the other that was recorded by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali said there was no reason for the prosecution to pursue the impeachment process and ordered for the cross-examination to continue.

The Pekan MP then took the stand on Monday (Jan 6).

Najib is testifying in the defence trial of the SRC International Sdn Bhd where he is accused of seven charges involving the misappropriation of RM42mil from SRC's coffers.

The prosecution had moved to impeach Najib earlier when the latter agreed to a question by prosecutor Datuk V. Sithambaram that there were contradictions in his testimony and his statement as recorded by the MACC.

Najib, however, said there was a reason for the discrepancy.

Sithambaram then made the application to impeach Najib under Section 145 and 155 of the Evidence Act.

This was objected by Najib's lawyers Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah and Harvinderjit Singh as their client had explained about the difference in his statements.