KUALA LUMPUR (May 21): The defence in Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) trial will continue cross-examining the sovereign fund’s former CEO Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi today.

Yesterday, the ninth prosecution witness was asked by defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah about the appointment of the sovereign fund’s non-executive director Tan Sri Ong Gim Huat.

Ong is a long-time business partner of Tan Sri Larry Low Hock Peng, the father of fugitive financier Low Taek Jho (Jho Low).

Shahrol said he did not know of the connection between Ong and Larry when he was sitting on the board, but added that Ong's name was brought up by Jho Low himself.

Shahrol also said it was former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s prerogative to appoint Ong.

"We did not do a background check on him (Ong) as he was appointed by Najib," the witness said in reply to Najib's lawyer Shafee during cross-examination.

Shahrol was also quizzed on the repatriation of US$1.83 billion (RM7.97 billion) of investment from the 1MDB-PetroSaudi International joint venture (1MDB-PSI JV).

Shafee had asked him if they backed out of the JV because they had doubts, to which Shahrol disagreed.

Shahrol explained that they needed money to kick off the Tun Razak Exchange and Bandar Malaysia projects.

The board of 1MDB had to convert the investment in the JV back to equity in 2012 — after previously converting it from equity to Murabaha notes in 2010 due to auditing reasons — in order to enable the repatriation of money.

Yesterday, Shafee and prosecution senior counsel Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram said they would write a letter to Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Azahar Mohamed as well as seek an audience with him on having more lawyers on each side during proceedings.

As a matter of safety with Covid-19 standard operating procedure put in place by the court, each side is only allowed three lawyers each.

However, both Shafee and Sri Ram have brought this up with Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah, saying that they need more lawyers inside court to help with the case.

Sequerah refused to budge yesterday and told both men to take it up with Azahar.

In the 1MDB-Tanore trial, Najib is facing four charges of abusing his position to obtain bribes totalling RM2.3 billion, and 21 charges of money laundering involving RM4.3 billion.

The Edge is covering the trial live here.

Users of The Edge Markets app may tap here to access the live report.