Najib Abdul Razak has filed an application to disqualify former federal court judge Gopal Sri Ram as special prosecutor for the former's 1MDB audit report tampering trial.
The accused’s lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah confirmed this when contacted tonight.
“Yes, we filed an application today to disqualify Sri Ram from being the DPP in the case (Najib’s 1MDB audit report tampering trial).
“The application is supported by two affidavits from Najib and (former attorney-general) Apandi (Ali).
“We served the application on the Attorney-General’s Chambers today in the early afternoon,” Shafee said.
The veteran legal practitioner said the application will come up for case management before Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan on Monday next week.
Previously, Zaini had set 15 days beginning Monday next week for the resumption of the trial that involves not only Najib but also his co-accused, former 1MDB president and CEO K Arul Kanda.
Shafee added that Najib’s defence team will inform the court on Monday that it should hear their application first before the trial can proceed as the integrity of the trial process was involved.
“We will insist the court hears our application first as it affects the integrity of the trial process,” he said.
When contacted, DPP Ahmad Akram Gharib confirmed that Najib’s defence team had filed the disqualification application.
“The case management before Justice Zaini will be at 9am (on Monday next week),” Akram said.
The application comes on the heels of an allegation by Apandi, who himself was also a former federal court judge, that Sri Ram had tried to coax him to play a role to arrest Najib.
In a posting on his Facebook, Apandi claimed that Sri Ram had approached him at his house in January 2018, supposedly under the instruction of former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
In regards to the trial, Najib is charged with using his position to order amendments to 1MDB's final audit report before it was presented to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and to prevent any action against him.
Arul Kanda is charged with abetting Najib in making the amendments.
The charges are framed under Section 23 (1) of the MACC Act 2009, which specifies a jail term of up to 20 years and a fine of no less than five times the amount of gratification or RM10,000, whichever is higher, on conviction. - Mkini
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