PETALING JAYA: Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak, who is on trial for criminal breach of trust among others, has been asked to apologise for his attempt to mount a defence on social media.
Attorney-General Tommy Thomas said an unconditional apology would be sought from Najib for his conduct.
Najib, who is on trial on several charges related to the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal, had posted a comment on Facebook that the money was spent on gifts for a royal whom he did not name.
He said it was “the norm” to give gifts to leaders of other governments.
He was commenting on the testimony of Ambank senior vice-president Yeoh Eng Leong who revealed in court that two credit cards belonging to Najib were used for RM3.3 million worth of purchases in one day.
Yeoh, who is in charge of credit card authorisation and fraud management, said the purchases were made at De Grisogono, a Swiss luxury jeweller, in Italy.
Thomas, who sought direction from judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali on the matter, said Najib should not be treated as a former prime minister “who thinks he has a political audience”.
“Today, there are 200 DPPs (deputy public prosecutors) appearing at different courts with 200 accused persons. In each case, the accused is not allowed to put forward his version of his defence on Facebook. That’s not how it works,” he said.
Thomas said the burden was on the prosecution to prove its case and the accused could then put forward his version if he was called to make his defence.
Apart from the apology, he also asked the court to direct Najib not to repeat such posts.
Yeoh was the 37th witness in the former premier’s trial in relation to the misappropriation of RM42 million from SRC International Sdn Bhd.
He told the court this week that RM456,360.51 was spent using a Visa Platinum credit card and another RM2,864,309.54 was spent on the Master Platinum credit card.
He said the shopping spree took place on Aug 8, 2014.
Najib, 66, is facing three counts of criminal breach of trust, one count of abusing his position and three counts of money laundering involving SRC International funds.
