Azizul was being re-examined today after having testified yesterday that he led a BNM team to raid the Ambank branch in Jalan Raja Chulan on July 6, 2015, to retrieve details about the accounts owned by Najib, SRC International and Gandingan Mentari Sdn Bhd. — Picture by Hari Anggara
KUALA LUMPUR, April 17 — The prosecution and defence engaged briefly in a heated exchange over the former’s examination methods during today’s hearing of Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s trial over RM42 million from SRC International Sdn Bhd at the High Court here.
During the re-examination of the second prosecution witness, Bank Negara Malaysia investigation officer Azizul Adzani Abdul Ghafar, defence lawyer Harvinderjit Singh accused the prosecution of “coaching” the central bank officer and objected.
Harvinderjit further said the prosecution should limit its re-examination to matters raised during the initial cross-examination and told the deputy public prosecutor to refer to the witness’s previous answers prior to asking questions today.
“This is re-examination... perhaps my learned friend should refer to question and answer,” he said.
Attorney General Tommy Thomas then rose to tell High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali that the defence should not dictate how the prosecution examines the witness.
“The style of examination differs from each lawyer,” the AG said.
Ad-hoc prosecutor Datuk V. Sithambaram backed Thomas on the matter by pointing out that their side did not challenge the defence team’s methods yesterday when he said they aggressively cross-examined the witness for five hours.
Azizul was being re-examined today after having testified yesterday that he led a BNM team to raid the Ambank branch in Jalan Raja Chulan on July 6, 2015, to retrieve details about the accounts owned by Najib, SRC International and Gandingan Mentari Sdn Bhd.
The defence asked him yesterday to produce the police report he lodged after conducting the raid on Ambank branch.
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