KUALA LUMPUR: An article by Attorney-General Tommy Thomas lauding news reports which exposed the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) fiasco was used by Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s defence team to secure an application to bring to court communication transcripts involving AmBank staff and holders of bank accounts linked to the state fund and the former premier.

Also cited in the application was the bestselling book Billion Dollar Whale, which underlined the exploits in 1MDB and the involvement of those involved, including fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low.

The defence and prosecution argued for more than an hour over what was written in the news article and the book, during yesterday’s proceedings in Najib’s SRC International Sdn Bhd trial at the High Court.

The application was brought up after the fourth witness of the trial, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) officer Ahmad Farhan Sharifuddin, confirmed that he possesses documents relating to AmBank relationship liaison manager Joanna Yu.

Farhan obtained the documents during the BNM raid on AmBank on July 6, 2015. He also seized Yu’s BlackBerry phone.

Yu was one of the three AmBank staff who liaised with holders of the bank accounts relating to Najib and 1MDB as well as its former subsidiary SRC International.

Pointing out that Yu’s BlackBerry message was published in Billion Dollar Whale, defence lawyer Havinderjit Singh demanded to see the phone and whatever transcripts the BNM team had obtained.

This prompted lawyer-turned-prosecutor Datuk V Sithambaram to argue that the defence has to show the relevancy of its requests in particular to this case.

“We do not want to have the defence go on a fishing expedition to get further documents with every of the prosecution witness, they would ask for something. This has to stop and some ground rules need to be made,” he said.

Sithambaram cited Section 51 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which states that when a trial is already ongoing, any request for new documents to be brought in should undergo a formal application and based on its relevance to the trial.

Sithambaram added that the prosecution is not planning to use such documents, and that Yu will be called up as witness anyway so the defence “can ask her” instead.

‘Defence crossing the line’

Earlier, deputy public prosecutor Datuk Ishak Mohd Yusoff had objected to Havinderjit’s line of questioning towards Farhan when the defence was seen to be probing more into 1MDB rather than SRC International, which is the subject of the trial.

“The defence is crossing the line,” Ishak said.

This came after Havinderjit questioned Farhan whether he knew there were exchanges between Jho Low and AmBank regarding 1MDB, to which the witness replied he did not know.

Despite the objection raised by Ishak, Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali ruled the question as relevant and this led to Havinderjit further questioning Farhan about the raid and the items seized and then turned to the BlackBerry.

“I am sure that you all seized other items besides documents, as we got to know that there were computers seized and a telecommunication device — a BlackBerry,” the lawyer asked, to which the witness agreed.

After Sithambaram raised the issue of relevancy, the judge ruled that the defence has to show relevancy in its application to see the BlackBerry and whatever transcripts that transpired between Yu and fellow AmBank officers Krystale Yap and Daniel Lee.

Defence wants Yu’s BlackBerry exchange with Jho Low

This led Havinderjit to read portions of the Billion Dollar Whale that contains the transcript of Yu’s BlackBerry message exchange with Jho Low.

Sithambaram objected, asking whether the court was accepting the book as evidence. Havinderjit replied that his action is relevant as the exchange published in the book has implicated his client, and that as defence counsel he has the right to see whether the transcript as reported in the book and the BlackBerry is correct.

Havinderjit went on to read an article produced by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) dated July 7, 2015, reporting on the raid by BNM on AmBank, and questioned how this information and details were leaked to the US publication.

Najib’s lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah also brought up the article written by Thomas in 2015 (when he was not the attorney general yet) commenting on reports in the WSJ and Sarawak Report. He said the reference to the reports is relevant as they provide “a lot of truth”.

This led to Sithambaram to say that he is not a politician but a lawyer and what he is raising is the relevancy of wanting all these.

“This is just a fishing expedition to get other evidence through Ahmad Farhan,” he said.

Besides the SRC International-related charges, Najib is also facing 21 charges of money laundering and four charges of criminal breach of trust in relation to RM2.3 billion from 1MDB, and also other charges in relation to audit tampering of 1MDB report, and also the International Petroleum Investment Corp-related charges.

Judge allows prosecution request

In the end, Justice Nazlan ordered Farhan to provide the BlackBerry phone seized and the transcripts, but only pertaining to communications regarding the bank accounts underlined during the raid.

“Given the grounds by the defence, the request to documents relating only to the communications is relevant. As such, the witness needs to produce the documents pertaining only to the communications,” he said.

This led to the defence asking Farhan to bring any documents relating to conversations between the three AmBank officials Yu, Yap, and Lee via email and phone such as BlackBerry Messenger with 12 individuals namely chief executive officer (CEO) of SRC International Nik Faisal Nik Ariff Kamil, Jho Low, former Putrajaya Perdana director Jerome Lee Tak Loong, former 1MDB finance director Terence Geh Choh Heng, former 1MDB lawyer Jasmine Loo Ai Swan, former 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, Suria Strategic Energy Resources Sdn Bhd president Datuk Mohammed Azhar Osman Khairuddin, former 1MDB director Tan Sri Ismee Ismail, former SRC director Datuk Suboh Md Yasin and See Yok Peng.

Earlier, Farhan told the court that three teams were formed leading to the AmBank raid on July 6, 2015. The raid was aimed at obtaining information relating to 12 bank accounts, including those of Najib and SRC International.