The Malaysian Insight

NAJIB Razak’s final appeal to quash his conviction in the SRC International Sdn Bhd trial will begin tomorrow with the former prime minister’s application to adduce fresh evidence to nullify his conviction or get a retrial.

Najib was found guilty of all seven criminal charges for having received RM42 million in funds from SRC International on July 28, 2020.

The then High Court judge and now Court of Appeal Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali sentenced Najib to 12 years in jail and a fine of RM210 million.

The Federal Court appeal is set to begin tomorrow and go on for nine days instead of the initial 10 days.

It will begin with Najib’s application to adduce fresh evidence alleging that Nazlan, who presided over the SRC trial, had a conflict of interest.

Before becoming a judge, Nazlan had been general counsel and secretary for Maybank, a lender to the troubled 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), which in turn was the SRC parent company.

Due to Nazlan’s position in Maybank, Najib argued there was a conflict of interest and that the judge should have recused himself accordingly.

While Najib had withdrawn his allegation of bribery against the judge, he had been adamant about producing new evidence in his appeal.

Malaysia Today had claimed that Nazlan was being investigated for an unexplained RM1 million in his account.

Nazlan denied the allegations and lodged a police report to this effect, with Najib having cited Malaysia Today editor and blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin.

The final appeal

The court today will first hear Najib’s application to produce fresh evidence and if this is dismissed, then the court will move on to hear the SRC appeal proper.

In the event Najib is allowed to produce fresh evidence, there is a likelihood that the SRC appeal will be postponed to a later date.

In the lead up to the final appeal, Najib had first tried to apply for Queen’s Counsel Jonathan Laidlaw to represent him in his final appeal at the Federal Court.

On May 31, Laidlaw filed a notice of originating motion through Messrs Shafee & Co at the High Court for his admission as a lawyer in Malaysia.

On July 22, the High Court dismissed this application. Justice Ahmad Kamal Md Shahid said while it was undeniable that Laidlaw was deemed “the star silk in financial crimes”, that alone would not suffice as having the special skills, qualifications, and knowledge on the application of local laws.

Following that, Najib decided to discharge Shafee as his counsel and appointed Zaid Ibrahim Suffian TH Liew & Partners. Senior lawyer Hisyam Teh Poh Teik was appointed as his lead counsel for the apex court appeal.

Due to the change in legal team, Najib’s lawyers sought to postpone the trial, but this was rejected by the courts.

What happened in the SRC trial

The SRC case is the first of five trials the 67-year-old Pekan MP is facing after the last general election in 2018.

The trial which spanned 14 months saw 57 prosecution witnesses and 19 defence witnesses take the stand.

Najib has strongly denied his involvement in the case. He always maintained that the money was a donation from Arab royalty.

Judge Nazlan, however, found that the defence’s argument that Najib received money from the late Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud could not be sustained because there was no evidence the Pekan MP attempted to verify the donation or the purpose of it with the king or the government of Saudi Arabia.

His lawyer, Shafee Abdullah, had spent the whole trial arguing that Najib was in fact the victim of rogue bankers and that he was taken advantage of by individuals that included fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, commonly known as Jho Low.

Nazlan dismissed this as “far-fetched”.

Documents produced during the trial showed that Najib had used this money on credit cards and to issue 17 cheques to various parties, including contractors for renovation and plumbing works as well as a media monitoring agency that helped him gain insight into voter bases.

Several witnesses who took the stand spoke of the sweeping powers Najib had in SRC.

While he held the position of advisor emeritus in SRC, Najib was simultaneously finance minister and prime minister.

During the trial, the court also heard how Najib had charged €750,000 to his credit card in a single day.

He had bought jewellery from Swiss-Italian jeweller De Grisogono, allegedly a gift for the wife of Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani, who was the then prime minister of Qatar.

He also charged his credit card for shopping at a Chanel boutique in Hawaii and the Shangri-La Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand.

Appeals court upholds verdict

In December 2021, the three-member bench chaired by Judge Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil upheld Nazlan’s decision.

In delivering the ruling, Karim said the bench agreed with trial judge Nazlan’s finding that Najib had personal interest for the cabinet to approve a government guarantee for a RM4 billion loan from Retirement Fund Inc to SRC International.

The judge ruled that Najib’s action in relation to the RM4 billion loan to SRC was not for national interest but for personal benefit.

Most shockingly, they said, Najib’s justification that the money in his account came from an Arab donation is straight out of the Arabian tales, a collection of Middle Eastern folklore. – August 14, 2022.