1MDB trial: Najib faces govt objection over bid to question witness protection chief about Roger Ng (2025)

PUTRAJAYA, April 9 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is planning to call in the director of the Malaysian government’s witness protection programme as a defence witness for his trial involving more than RM2 billion of alleged 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) funds in his bank account.

But the Prime Minister’s Department’s Protection Division, which oversees the witness protection programme, today objected to the subpoena — a court order issued at Najib’s request — to summon and compel the director to appear in court as a defence witness.

Najib’s lead defence lawyer, Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, informed the High Court today that he would call “the director in charge of protective custody in Putrajaya” as a defence witness, stating that his client is calling the director in relation to former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng.

However, senior federal counsel Nur Hidayah Raihan Md Nasir, from the Prime Minister’s Department’s Protection Division, immediately made a verbal application to the High Court to set aside the subpoena issued to her division’s director-general, which had only been received at around 11am yesterday.

Nur Hidayah Raihan said the subpoena did not state why the director-general was being summoned to be present in court today.

However, she said she had obtained information through a phone conversation with Najib’s lawyers that they wished to ask the director-general about Ng.

“Here I believe the application to set aside the subpoena is necessary as the director-general is bound by the Witness Protection Act and obligation of secrecy to not disclose any information about participants of the programme or the witness protection programme’s affairs,” she said.

She added that if the director-general is called in to testify in court regarding Ng or anyone, he would not be able to testify as he is bound by the laws.

Trial judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah then asked Nur Hidayah to file the application to set aside the subpoena by noon this Friday, and scheduled next Tuesday for the hearing of the application.

Ng was in March 2023 sentenced in the US courts to 10 years’ jail for several offences including conspiring to launder billions of dollars embezzled from 1MDB and conspiring to pay over US$1.6 billion bribes to government officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi.

Ng’s jail term in the US was deferred as he was handed over to Malaysia, and in October 2023, he returned to Malaysia, where he was arrested by the police for further investigation to trace and recover assets misappropriated from 1MDB.

As of last December, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Razarudin Husain confirmed that Ng remains under police custody to help with ongoing police investigations on 1MDB.

Today, 11th defence witness Senior Assistant Commissioner R. Rajagopal, who was the investigation officer for the police’s criminal breach of trust investigation on 1MDB, completed his testimony. He was first called to the stand on February 24.

Nabilla Md Yusof, an assistant registrar at the division for registration of criminal cases at the Kuala Lumpur courts, appeared as the 16th defence witness today.

Shafee questioned her about two cases registered at the Kuala Lumpur courts for former 1MDB general counsel Jasmine Loo, and asked her to bring the related files to these cases to court tomorrow.

He listed the documents he wanted her to bring for the two cases, including an arrest warrant on Loo, the charges for the case, and the court proceedings.

Shafee also said he wanted information on the status of the arrest warrant, whether it has been executed or cancelled, whether the arrest warrant had a bond, and whether the arrest warrant was to be executed by the police or the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

The trial resumes tomorrow.