KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Razak feels extremely disappointed with the High Court's decision ordering him to enter defence on 25 charges linked to the 1MDB case, says his lawyer, Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.
Shafee was referring to Judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah's decision to order Najib to defend himself on 21 money laundering charges and four abuse of power charges.
"The court has found that the prosecution has proven a prima facie case in respect of all 25 charges," said Shafee.
"If you were to ask me, what do we feel? Extremely disappointed. My client feels extremely disappointed because we have put up arguments that we thought would at the minimum require serious consideration.
"Secondly, we feel that a lot of the evidence that has been considered by the judge is hearsay. This is probably one of the rare or the only cases where hearsay evidence is taken as wholesale, everything that was said.
"Without going into very much detail, we are going to prepare for the defence."
Shafee said he was surprised that Najib was ordered to enter defence on all charges, saying it was probably the only case he had not won on a single point.
"(There was) Not a shred of cotton I won in this particular case. But we are not giving up, we are going to fight this case and we are more determined because of this decision," he said.
Shafee also said that Najib did not apologise for the 1MDB financial scandal recently because he wanted today's court decision to be in his favour.
"Najib had apologised that the 1MDB debacle happened during his watch. He is not saying that 'I did it.' He has to apologise because he is the number 1.
"Under the Westminster system, if you are the head of the government and a bad thing happened under your watch, among other things, you apologise.
"And that was what precisely he did. He did not apologise for those purposes in order to get a better result here. No.
"He thought it was already due for him to apologise merely because it took place during his watch. He is not saying he is guilty criminally, negligently or recklessly," he said, adding that many had misinterpreted Najib's actions.
Shafee said Najib wanted to be cross-examined when the defence stage starts on Dec 2.
He said a minimum of 11 witnesses will testify including Najib, adding that it could be more as it was expected to last the whole of next year and it was impossible to gauge how long the defence would take.
He said he had also indicated that they would take witnesses offered by the prosecution.