1MDB’s former CEO tests negative for Covid-19, can resume testifying in Najib’s trial next week

KUALA LUMPUR — A former CEO of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) has tested negative for Covid-19 and will be able to continue testifying in Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s corruption trial next Monday.

Former 1MDB chief executive Mohd Hazem Abd Rahman, who is the 10th prosecution witness, yesterday could not attend court and testify in the trial as he had fever.

Hazem had been in the same courtroom as Najib, the lawyers from Najib’s defence team and the prosecution, court officials and the judge on Monday and Tuesday when he was testifying.

High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah had yesterday asked for the prosecution to call in another witness to testify and for the trial to go on with the other witness, while also directing Hazem to undergo Covid-19 screening.

The trial yesterday proceeded with the Cabinet’s former deputy chief secretary Tan Sri Mazidah Abdul Majid taking the witness stand and testifying as the 11th prosecution witness, as Hazem’s test results would only be out today.

The trial today resumed, with Mazidah completing her testimony in court.

At the end of today’s court proceedings this afternoon, the judge asked about Hazem’s current status.

Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib said that Hazem was in fact in the court complex here earlier.

Asked for Hazem’s Covid-19 test result, Akram said that the witness had “tested negative”.

Hazem first took the witness stand in September 2020 in the 1MDB trial and has been testifying for about seven days, with Najib’s lawyers still cross-examining him.

Najib’s 1MDB trial resumes next Monday and is scheduled to run until next Thursday, with Hazem expected to continue testifying next week.