The High Court in Kuala Lumpur has fixed Oct 16 to hear Najib Abdul Razak’s application to recuse former Federal Court judge Gopal Sri Ram from prosecuting the former prime minister’s 1MDB audit report tampering trial.
The hearing date was fixed following case management of the matter before deputy registrar Catherine Nicholas this morning.
DPP Mohamad Mustaffa P Kunyalam, who attended the case management for the prosecution, informed the media of the hearing date.
“The application to disqualify Sri Ram has been fixed for hearing on Oct 16 before High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan,” Mustaffa said.
The DPP explained that Najib’s defence team needed time to respond to the prosecution’s affidavit concerning the recusal bid.
Najib’s counsel Nur Syahirah Hanapiah also attended today’s case management.
On June 12, it was reported that Najib has filed an application to disqualify Sri Ram as special prosecutor for the former prime minister's 1MDB audit report tampering trial.
Najib’s lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah was quoted saying that the recusal application was backed with an affidavit by former attorney-general (AG) Mohamed Apandi Ali, among others.
The recusal application came 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 prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
In the ongoing 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.
Co-accused and former 1MDB chief executive officer Arul Kanda Kandasamy 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, upon conviction. - Mkini
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