KUALA LUMPUR: Lawyers for Najib Razak in his 1MDB corruption trial said they are considering whether to apply for trial judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah to recuse himself from hearing the case.
Lead counsel Shafee Abdullah informed the High Court of this today, after Sequerah disclosed yesterday that he and former 1MDB general counsel Loo Ai Swan had been partners in a law firm.
Loo, also known as Jasmine Loo, is believed to be a former associate of fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low, the alleged mastermind in the 1MDB scandal.
“The disclosure (yesterday) took us by surprise,” Shafee said.
Yesterday, Sequerah told both the prosecution and defence that Loo had left the law firm of Zain & Co about 15 years ago, while he was elevated to the bench in 2014.
He also said he will deal with any application to recuse himself “when the time comes”.
Shafee said Sequerah had heard testimony from witnesses such as former 1MDB CEOs Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi and Hazem Abd Rahman, as well as former CFO Azmi Tahir about Loo’s role in the company.
He said the defence required time to conduct research on issues relating to the disqualification of judges.
“We will give our stand on Aug 14,” he said.
Earlier this month, home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail confirmed that Loo had been arrested by police.
He said she had been remanded for 1MDB-related investigations and her lawyers had confirmed that she was “ready to offer her cooperation to the police and government”.
Saifuddin said Loo is being investigated under Section 409 of the Penal Code for criminal breach of trust.
Loo went missing shortly before the 14th general election on May 9, 2018 along with several other key individuals linked to the 1MDB scandal – former SRC International CEO Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, former 1MDB executive director Tang Keng Chee, and Geh Choh Heng.
A warrant of arrest was issued for her. Police later sought Interpol’s assistance to track them down.
Najib is standing trial on 25 counts of money laundering and abuse of power over the alleged misuse of 1MDB funds amounting to RM2.28 billion deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.
His 1MDB trial started on Aug 28, 2019, and 45 witnesses have testified so far.
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