Witness leaves lawyer irked

KUALA LUMPUR: A former senior government official who claimed to be ignorant about her own witness statement left Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s defence counsel, Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, livid.

Muhammad Shafee even had to raise his voice at Datuk Siti Zauyah Mohd Desa, 63, a former deputy secretary-general at the Finance Ministry, who admitted that she did not know the full content of her statement as “someone else had drafted it”.

“I was only shown the witness statement at the last minute. I was not given the opportunity to read the document in its entirety.

“It was prepared by my staff without my presence,” she told the court during the former prime minister’s RM2.28bil 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) trial.

This is the first time the Pekan MP is back in court after being sent to prison following the Federal Court’s dismissal of his final appeal in the RM42mil SRC International case.

Muhammad Shafee is also back, continuing his role as Najib’s lawyer in this case after being discharged in the SRC case.

He appeared to be frustrated with the “non-answers” from Siti Zauyah.

“In truth, you don’t know whether the details in your statement are true, accurate or to your personal knowledge?” said Muhammad Shafee.

Siti Zauyah then said she did not know the full content of her statement as it was prepared by two subordinates.

During the cross-examination, the witness also kept responding to Muhammad Shafee’s questions with “I don’t know” and “I don’t remember”.

At one point, Muhammad Shafee told her: “Just answer the question.”

He then told the court that Siti Zauyah “has a wonderful textbook statement, but now she says she doesn’t know anything”.

The court also heard that 1MDB had breached procedure when it did not direct the proposal of a joint venture with PetroSaudi International Ltd to the Minister of Finance Inc (MoF Inc) before deciding on it.

The venture should have been channelled to the MoF Inc before being submitted to the Cabinet, Siti Zauyah said.

She said she made a complaint on the matter to then Treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Dr Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Abdullah, but no action was taken.

Muhammad Shafee also seemed annoyed at being surrounded by the media after his lunch break.

Asked about his client’s well-being, he snapped: “Go and find out yourself.”

Najib is facing 25 charges in total – four for abuse of power that allegedly brought him financial benefit to the tune of RM2.28bil, and 21 for money laundering involving the same amount of money.

The hearing continues on Sept 5 before Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah.