Claim of biased judge in Najib's SRC case 'totally unwarranted', appeal court hears

 

The claim that the trial judge was biased in Najib Abdul Razak’s RM42 million SRC International corruption case is "totally unwarranted", the Court of Appeal heard today.

Deputy public prosecutor V Sithambaram submitted this before the three-person bench, in a counter against the former prime minister’s appeal to quash his conviction and sentencing in the case.

The DPP was rebutting the contention by Najib’s defence that Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali was biased in finding the former premier guilty of seven charges of abuse of power, criminal breach of trust (CBT), and money laundering involving RM42 million of SRC funds.

Najib’s legal team contended that Nazlan demonstrated bias due to the trial judge allegedly adding further reasons in the prima facie ruling that ordered the accused to enter his defence to the seven charges.

On Nov 10, 2019, the high court ordered Najib to enter his defence against the seven charges, after the court found that the prosecution had succeeded in establishing a prima facie case. At the time, Nazlan had given a brief summary of the prima facie ruling.

Following Najib's conviction and sentencing at the end of the defence’s case on July 28 last year, the high court later released its full grounds for judgment, which included in-depth detail for the judge’s earlier prima facie ruling.

Najib’s defence team contended that the former premier had been prejudiced by the matter, as there was alleged misdirection by the trial judge in relation to the prima facie ruling.

The former premier's legal team claimed, among others, that the prosecution established a new case during the cross-examination of Najib during the defence stage of the SRC trial, which was allegedly contrary to the prima facie case established at the end of the prosecution's case.

The defence said the prosecution abandoned its case that was established at the close of the prosecution case's, and allegedly advanced another new and inconsistent case.  

During the hearing before the Court of Appeal today, Sithambaram countered that Section 182A of the Criminal Procedure Code empowers the court to all evidence at the conclusion of the trial, and not limited to the summary of reason for a prima facie ruling.

The DPP argued that the SRC prima facie ruling merely provided a summary for its grounds of ruling, and that the detailed reasons were then provided in the full written grounds of judgment issued after Najib was convicted and sentenced.

“The summation of defence and my learned friend (Najib’s lead defence counsel Muhammad) Shafee (Abdullah), both inside and outside court, is that the judge was biased in handling the defence case. Meaning that he (trial judge) was biased in favour of the prosecution.

“This is a very serious allegation. I am in support of the judgment demonstrating that those accusations against the judge are unwarranted from evidence adduced. Totally unwarranted.

“There is no basis to say the judge was (acting as) ‘second prosecutor’ or hopelessly incompetent or demonstrated incompetence," Sithambaram said.

“This summation (by the prosecution today) is made to save the integrity of the grounds of judgement, and in a wider context to ensure that the due administration of justice is not in any way tainted.

"This is an important case followed by the public, and people reading (news covering the trial) may think the judge was biased and incompetent without basis.

“The appellant or defence is attacking the judge,” he said, adding that there has not been a miscarriage of justice in the SRC case.

 Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali

The DPP added that it is important for the prosecution to make this submission as Nazlan is unable to defend himself against the allegations hurled against him.

Today’s bench was chaired by Court of Appeal judge Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil. Other members of the bench were judges Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera and Has Zanah Mehat.

The hearing before the Court of Appeal continues today.

On July 28 last year, the Kuala Lumpur High Court convicted Najib on one count of abuse of power, three counts of CBT and three counts of money laundering in relation to RM42 million of funds from SRC.

Nazlan then sentenced Najib to 12 years in jail and a fine of RM210 million.

The lower court allowed the defence team's application for a stay of the sentence pending the disposal of his appeal.

SRC, which was once a subsidiary of troubled sovereign wealth fund 1MDB, later became fully owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated.

Besides being a former prime minister, Najib was also once the finance minister, SRC’s adviser emeritus, and chairperson of 1MDB’s board of advisers. - Mkini