NAJIB’S D-DAY TOMORROW – COMPLETE ACQUITTAL? OR KICKED OUT? OR RETRIAL AT HIGH COURT LEVEL? OR REHEARING OF HIS APPEAL AT FEDERAL COURT LEVEL?
The Federal Court is set to decide tomorrow on Najib Abdul Razak’s application to review the former prime minister’s conviction and sentencing in the RM42 million SRC International corruption case.
The decision of the five-person bench chaired by Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Abdul Rahman Sebli could result in the complete acquittal of Najib, also a former finance minister, on seven charges of abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money laundering.
In the event that the apex court does not dismiss the review bid, it could also either order for a retrial of Najib’s case before a new High Court judge, other than Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali, or for a rehearing of his appeal before a fresh Federal Court bench not led by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat.
The other members of the bench presiding over the review application are Federal Court judges Vernon Ong Lam Kiat, Rhodzariah Bujang and Nordin Hassan, as well as Court of Appeal judge Abu Bakar Jais.
The Federal Court had heard the review bid over a six-day period that began on Jan 19, proceeded through Feb 20 to 22 and 27, and ended on Feb 28.
On Aug 23 last year, a separate Federal Court panel chaired by Tengku Maimun dismissed Najib’s appeal to set aside his guilty verdict as well as a 12-year jail sentence and RM210 million fine in the graft case.
Having exhausted his appeals before the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court, Najib has gone before the current Federal Court panel to hear his review over the case involving one count of abuse of power, three counts of criminal breach of trust, and three money laundering charges.
Incarcerated in Kajang Prison, Najib is also pursuing other avenues outside the judiciary, namely a petition for a royal pardon as well as a petition before the United Nations over his alleged arbitrary detention.
Through the present review application, Najib contended that trial judge Nazlan, who has since been elevated from the High Court to the Court of Appeal, was in a conflict of interest when he heard and decided on the SRC International case in July 2020.
Najib claimed, among others, that the judge was allegedly aware that Maybank Investment (an entity of Maybank Group) and BinaFikir (another entity of Maybank Group) had advised sovereign wealth fund 1MDB in the matters pertaining to the setting up of SRC International.
Najib alleged that the conflict of interest arose due to Nazlan’s previous role as a general counsel with Maybank.
Initially, a subsidiary of 1MDB, SRC became fully owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MOF Inc). 1MDB is also fully owned by MOF Inc.
Najib’s review bid also targets the previous panel’s three other decisions.
They are the decisions denying his bid to produce additional evidence to strengthen his allegations against Nazlan, rejecting his bid to postpone the appeal hearing so his lawyers could have more time to prepare for the appeal and denying his application to recuse Tengku Maimun over alleged conflict of interest.
ANN
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