Three benches of the High Court to hear Najib's temporary passport release bid

 

Three different benches of the High Court in Kuala Lumpur are set tomorrow to hear Najib Abdul Razak’s application for a temporary release of his passport.

This comes on the heels of the Court of Appeal allowing the former prime minister’s temporary passport release application on Monday so that he could be in Singapore to support his daughter Nooryana Najwa, who is expected to give birth there.

Under the law, an accused person who wishes to apply for the temporary release of his passport, but has pending criminal cases before multiple criminal-jurisdiction courts, needs to make and have his applications heard before these various judges.

Besides his RM42 million SRC International corruption case, for which he had been convicted and sentenced (and is in the process of appeal), Najib also has three other pending criminal cases before three High Court judges in Kuala Lumpur.

Najib is undergoing trial for a RM2.28 billion 1MDB corruption case before judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah and another trial before judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan for alleged involvement in the amendment to 1MDB’s audit report.

The Pekan MP also has a pending case, that has not gone to trial yet, involving an alleged criminal breach of trust of RM6.6 billion in government funds linked to International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) payments, before judge Muhammad Jamil Hussin. 

Scheduled one after the other 

Najib’s counsel Muhammad Farhan Muhammad Shafee today confirmed that the former prime minister earlier filed the temporary passport-access applications and that the separate benches will hear the applications tomorrow.

“The applications will come up for hearing before Sequerah, Zaini and Jamil,” the lawyer told Malaysiakini.

Farhan added that the applications would be heard one after the other. 

When contacted, deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib also confirmed the hearings. 

Checks on the online cause list showed that Najib’s applications are fixed for hearing tomorrow morning.  - Mkini