PUTRAJAYA, Oct. 23 -- Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, the lead lawyer for Datuk Seri Najib Razak, wants the High Court to consider the possibility that the former prime minister had been negligent instead of having behaved criminally in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) case.

As the 1MDB trial resumed today, Shafee argued that Najib should be given the benefit of doubt if the sovereign investment fund's former CEO Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi was seen as possibly negligent in running the company.

In proceedings earlier, another defence lawyer Wan Azwan Aiman Wan Fakhruddin repeatedly challenged the credibility of Shahrol's testimony as a prosecution witness against Najib.

Among other things, Wan Azwan Aiman argued that Sha...