PUTRAJAYA: Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was deprived of a fair hearing in the SRC International Sdn Bhd appeal as the Court of Appeal had mistreated the defence team during the proceedings last year, says his lead counsel.
A three-man panel of the appellate court had “prejudged” the defence team as they requested an adjournment due to a misfortune involving Covid-19, said Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.
The lawyer was submitting an appeal at the Federal Court related to Najib’s application to adduce new evidence in his SRC International appeal here yesterday.
One of the lawyers in the defence team had tested positive for Covid-19 just two days before the decision in Najib’s appeal on Dec 8, 2021 – and a day before the defence was to argue on a last-minute attempt to adduce new evidence in the SRC International Sdn Bhd appeal on Dec 7, 2021.
Muhammad Shafee said the defence requested a 10-day adjournment, as per the Covid-19 quarantine then, but it was brushed aside and they were compelled to participate in a hybrid proceeding, pursuant to Section 15A of the Court of Judicature (Amendment) Act 2020.
“The Court of Appeal didn’t give us reasonable time to prepare. What transpired on Dec 7 (2021) is a pre-judgment,” the lawyer said.
On Dec 7, 2021, Najib’s team brought before the court an application seeking for the Court of Appeal to allow and direct for the viva voce evidence (oral evidence) of Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki, among others, to be taken for the purpose of the SRC International appeal.
Fair hearing, please: Muhammad Shafee speaking to the press at the Federal Court in Putrajaya during lunch break. — IZZRAFIQ ALIAS/The Star
Muhammad Shafee said the hearing on Dec 7 had “started off on the wrong foot” as Najib was threatened with his bail being revoked due to his (Najib) absence in court that morning.
“This is not a situation where he (Najib) can simply will it to happen. When one person is positive, the other is not positive but the rest are close contacts.
“According to the SOP (of the court then), we can’t even enter the court complex. But we were questioned on this.
“In the interest of justice, the court ought to be more sympathetic,” Muhammad Shafee said.
Meanwhile, lead prosecutor Datuk V. Sithambaram said Najib’s defence was offered former Bank Negara governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz as a defence witness at the close of the prosecution case but this was never taken up.
“Yet, despite being offered, the appellant chose not to interview her or call her as a defence witness.
“All relevant evidence relating to Zeti’s role in relation to the present charges is well within the knowledge of the appellant during the trial,” he said.
The failure to do so, he said, was “fatal” to the application.
Najib had also claimed that Iron Rhapsody Ltd – a company linked to Zeti’s husband Datuk Dr Tawfiq Ayman and their two sons – had received monies from Acme Time Ltd, allegedly owned by fugitive financier Low Taek Jho who is central to the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal.
The prosecution said there was no evidential link between monies received by Tawfiq and his two sons from 1MDB in 2009 and the SRC monies found in Najib’s bank accounts.
A timeline of monetary transactions involving Iron Rhapsody in 2008 and 2009 also predated the charges against Najib by two to five years as well as the formation of SRC, which was incorporated in 2010.
Sithambaram said the monies received by Tawfiq and his sons had nothing to do with SRC, its failed purpose and the scheme to siphon money from the 1MDB subsidiary.
“The whole cumulative evidence, if proven, is a separate and independent offence unrelated whatsoever with the charges against the appellant at the trial,” Sithambaram added.
Najib is appealing against a decision by the Court of Appeal that dismissed his application to adduce new evidence in his main SRC appeal against his conviction and sentence.
The hearing continues today before a five-man panel chaired by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat.
Other judges on the bench are Court of Appeal president Justice Rohana Yusuf, Chief Judge of Malaya Justice Azahar Mohamed, Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Justice Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Federal Court judge Justice Mohd Zawawi Salleh.