SRC appeal: Federal Court dismisses Najib’s bid to adduce fresh evidence
Published on: Tuesday, August 16, 2022
By:
FMT, Ho Kit Yen
In his application, Najib Razak says judge Nazlan Ghazali should have recused himself from presiding over the SRC International case.
PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court has dismissed Najib Razak’s application to adduce fresh evidence in his final appeal to prove that judge Nazlan Ghazali was under a serious conflict of interest when presiding over the SRC International trial two years ago.
Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat said the application to adduce additional evidence did not fulfil the requirements of the law.
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Delivering the court’s judgment, Tengku Maimun said the judges could not see how the proposed additional evidence with regard to Nazlan’s previous employment with Maybank was related to the abuse of power charge preferred against Najib under Section 23 of MACC Act.
“Even if Maybank was involved, the question is. How is the bank, and by extension Justice Nazlan’s involvement, in any way material to the question of abuse of power charge,” she asked.
The chief justice said there was no basis to suggest that Nazlan’s professional association with Maybank in any way affected his findings on the abuse of power charge.
“We state again here that we have not examined the correctness of his (Nazlan) findings on the abuse of power charge. These are questions for the main appeals,” she said.
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Tengku Maimun said the court also observed that there was nothing to suggest that Nazlan made a finding of guilt against Najib based on anything else except the evidence presented during the trial in 2019.
“We further find that there is no nexus between Justice Nazlan’s previous Maybank employment with, and the charges against, the applicant so as to suggest conflict of interest giving rise to bias,” she added.
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The other judges who heard the former prime minister’s bid were Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Federal Court judges Nallini Pathmanathan, Mary Lim and Zabidin Mohd Diah.
In his application, Najib said Nazlan ought to have recused himself from presiding over the trial as he was involved in deliberations and decision-making in the lead up to the formation of SRC as a 1MDB subsidiary and the grant of loan and credit facilities for the benefit of SRC and 1MDB.
Nazlan was Maybank’s group general counsel and company secretary at the material time.
Najib’s motion sought that oral testimony be taken from former 1MDB CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, SRC case investigating officer Rosli Hussein and three Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission officers (Zamri Zainul Abidin, Asrul Ridzuan Ahmad Rustami and Noor Syazana Kamin) who recorded statements from Nazlan during an investigation earlier this year.
In July 2020, Najib was convicted on seven charges of abuse of power, money laundering and criminal breach of trust over SRC funds amounting to RM42 million. His conviction was upheld by the Court of Appeal on Dec 8 last year.
The court also upheld Najib’s 12-year jail sentence and RM210 million fine. However, Najib was released on bail pending his final appeal before the Federal Court.
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