A Malaysian court started hearings Monday on former Prime Minister Najib Razak over tampering the final audit report on state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
Najib showed up at the high court in Kuala Lumpur for the hearings together with his co-defendant 1MDB former chief executive officer (CEO) Arul Kanda Kandasamy.
Najib was charged last December for using his position as prime minister to protect himself from ethical, civil or criminal actions against him in relation to 1MDB, by ordering the alteration of the final audit report before it was presented to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), a committee of Malaysia's parliament tasked with reviewing the country's public accounts.
Arul had been charged separately for abetting the offense.
Najib has asked to postpone the trial but his request was rejected by the court.
The 66-year-old is currently preparing to enter his defense in the case related to SRC International, a former unit of state development fund 1MDB, in which he faces seven charges of misappropriating 42 million ringgit (10.3 million U.S. dollars) in SRC funds.
The court last week ordered Najib to enter defense. The hearing is scheduled to resume in early December.
Najib is being tried for several charges of using his position to obtain bribes from 1MDB and multiple money-laundering charges.
He has been slapped with dozens of other charges for corruption, money laundering, power abuse and criminal breach of trust involving millions of ringgit since his then ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition lost power in the national elections last year.
Najib has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
