The Malaysian Insight

THE appeal hearing of Najib Razak to overturn his conviction and sentence for the misappropriation of SRC International funds commenced virtually today at 12.30pm as ordered by the Court of Appeal, which said it would issue an arrest warrant for the accused if he failed to attend.

Lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah began by asking for the hearing to be postponed until Najib has completed a 10-day quarantine, which starts today.

Shafee said the court order for the hearing to be held online had left the defence unprepared and that most of the case documents were in the office.

He complained the prosecution had an unfair advantage as its representatives could appear physically before the judges in court while the defence team was unable to do the same.

The defence is scheduled today to present new evidence to support Najib’s appeal application.

The judges are set to rule tomorrow whether to uphold or overturn Najib’s conviction for multiple counts of money laundering, criminal breach of trust and power abuse in relation to the theft of RM42 million of funds belonging to SRC International.

In July last year, High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali sentenced Najib to 10 years in jail for each of the three CBT and three money-laundering charges, as well as 12 years in prison and a fine of RM210 million for one charge of power abuse.

He later allowed Najib’s application to stay the execution of the verdict pending disposal of his appeal. Bail was allowed at RM2 million in two sureties. – December 7, 2021.