PETALING JAYA: A warrant of arrest has been issued for Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak’s former media adviser, Paul Geoffrey Stadlen, over money laundering charges.
Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib said the warrant, issued by a Kuala Lumpur magistrate’s court, would be handed to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for delivery to Interpol for execution.
Stadlen, said to be closely linked to former prime minister Najib, is believed to have fled the country after the general election in May last year after he was asked by MACC to assist in investigations into the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal.
Prosecutors now want Stadlen to be jointly tried with prominent Umno lawyer Datuk Mohd Hafarizam Harun on two money laundering charges involving a total of RM15 million. Mohd Hafarizam is said to have received the money from Najib to be deposited into his legal firm’s account.
On the first charge, Hafarizam is alleged to have directly engaged in two transactions involving proceeds from “unlawful activities” amounting to RM11.5 million that was received from Najib and deposited into his firm’s bank account between April 16 and Nov 4 in 2014.
Mohd Hafarizam faces a second charge of transferring another RM3.5 million belonging to Najib into his firm’s account on Feb 12, 2015.
He has been charged under Section 4(1)(a) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 and faces up to 15 years in jail or a fine amounting to not less than five times the amount of the proceeds from the unlawful activities, or RM5 million, whichever is higher.
The prosecution has asked for a joint trial with Stadlen because “Hafarizam was involved in transferring the funds while Stadlen was giving directions on how the money was to be transferred”.
At another proceeding in the Kuala Lumpur sessions court today, deputy public prosecutor Mohamad Mustafa P. Kunyalam, who is leading the prosecution in Mohd Hafarizam’s case, proposed the lawyer be allowed bail of RM500,000 in one surety and that he be ordered to surrender his passport.
Defence counsel Datuk Hasnal Rezua Merican did not object, and judge Azman Ahmad fixed bail as proposed and ordered Mohd Hafarizam to surrender his passport.
The court set March 25 for mention of the case.
At the same proceeding, Ahmad Akram Gharib, who is leading the prosecution in Stadlen’s case, said if the Briton was physically brought to court to face the charges, an application would be made for his and Mohd Hafarizam’s cases to be heard together.
Meanwhile, legal expert Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman said it was possible for a person to be charged in absentia but the case cannot go to trial if the accused is not physically present to enter a plea.
He was responding to a statement by Stadlen’s lawyers that Malaysian law does not provide for a person to be charged in absentia.
