ormer Umno leader Lokman Noor Adam has been ruled to have committed contempt of court related to former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak’s RM2.28 billion 1MDB corruption case.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court today ruled in favour of the prosecution’s committal application against Lokman.
Judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah ruled that Lokman committed contempt in relation to the eighth prosecution witness (PW8) in the 1MDB case, namely Najib’s former special officer Amhari Effendi Nazaruddin.
“I find the act of the respondent, accompanied with intent, to make the media statement and police report, amounted to a threat against PW8 and other potential witness in trial, giving rise to risk on the due administration of justice and amounted to contempt of court,” Sequerah ruled.
After the ruling, the court now is hearing submissions from Lokman’s legal team for mitigation in his sentencing.
Today was scheduled for decision on the committal application.
The prosecution seeks to cite Lokman, a former Umno supreme council member, for contempt over alleged threatening of witnesses in Najib’s RM2.28 billion corruption trial.
The committal application is over two alleged 2019 incidents involving Amhari.
Amhari had testified for the prosecution in the ongoing RM2.28 billion 1MDB corruption trial against Najib.
The first incident was on Sept 25, 2019, where Lokman (above) allegedly uttered words in a video interview, amounting to an express or implied threat against Amhari, for testifying against the former prime minister.
The second incident also purportedly occurred on the same day, in relation to Lokman lodging a police report against Amhari, in relation to the oral evidence given by him at the 1MDB trial.
During the previous hearing of the contempt application before Sequerah, DPP Gopal Sri Ram submitted that right of freedom of speech does not justify Lokman’s alleged threatening of the witness.
The DPP contended that, among others, the words contained in the police report and the video interview amounted to an attack not only on Amhari but on the court itself in relation to Najib’s 1MDB case.
However, Lokman’s counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah had countered that the contempt application ought to be dismissed, as the show-cause notice to the former Umno leader allegedly did not state critical details of the purported contemptuous acts.
Shafee contended, among others, that the prosecution cannot rely on the affidavit in support of details on the alleged contemptuous acts, claiming that the pertinent details should already be contained in the show-cause notice itself.
If found to have been in contempt, Lokman could face either a fine or a jail term.
[More to follow] - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.