KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here today allowed an application by Najib Razak and his family to physically inspect items allegedly bought with funds siphoned from 1MDB.
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Judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan said they should be given the opportunity to conduct the inspection to put up a defence in response to the seized items.
He said the government’s security concerns could be easily allayed as the inspection could be conducted at premises under their control.
“I also cannot fathom how the removal of the items would result in the deterioration of the valuables,” he said.
Zaini imposed conditions that the inspection must be done at premises designated by the government and that only the applicants could be present but under supervision.
He said only one lawyer could accompany each of the applicants.
“The inspection can be done only once within the next two weeks and then the applicants file an affidavit to the court,” he said.
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He said whether it was meritorious for the government to forfeit the items would be decided after submissions by the parties.
The discovery application was filed by Najib, his wife Rosmah Mansor and their daughter Nooryana Najwa following a forfeiture suit filed by the government over hundreds of items that were seized from three premises linked to the family after the 14th general election.
The prosecution agreed to provide colour photograpgs of the seized items, as well as their detailed descriptions, such as the product labels, logos, gift cards and packaging.
Among the items are 315 handbags of various luxury brands, 14 watches and 27 pairs of shoes of various brands, as well as cash in various currencies, including RM537,000, £2,700, 2,870,000 in Sri Lanka rupees, RM187,750 in old notes and £320,500.
On July 18 last year, Najib, Rosmah and Nooryana filed the discovery application to be allowed to physically inspect the items seized by police.
They claimed the pictures of the items provided by the prosecution were “not clear”.
They filed the application on the grounds that parts of the boxes, handbags and containers that were seized had been removed from their original wrappings and this has caused confusion in their identification process. -FMT