00:00Najib Razak's lawyers told the High Court today they have been unable to locate a former lawyer to testify for the defense at his 1MDB trial.
00:10One Azwan Ayman Wan Fakhruddin told Justice Colin Lawrence-Sekera several attempts have been made since last month to contact Brian Chia and secure his testimony.
00:21Chia authored a legal opinion to justify the transfer of US$700 million from 1MDB's funds to Goodstar Ltd, a firm controlled by fugitive businessmen Loh Teck Choe or Joe Loh.
00:34In response, Deputy Public Prosecutor Kamal Baharin Omar said the authorities will do their best to locate Chia and if unable to do so, the prosecution will tender his witness statement.
00:45One Azwan said the defense will call MACC investigating officer Nasharuddin Amir to testify on Friday.
00:52Najib is standing trial on 25 charges of abuse of power and money laundering of alleged 1MDB funds of RM2.28 billion deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.
