Dzulkefly wins appeal to recuse ex-AG’s daughter in Najib libel case

 The appellate court finds real danger of bias in Judicial Commissioner Arziah Apandi’s remarks and remits the case to the High Court.

Health minister Dzulkefly Ahmad (left) is suing former prime minister Najib Razak over claims the health minister had practised nepotism by securing the appointment of his daughter to the board of Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia.

PUTRAJAYA:

 The Court of Appeal today allowed Dzulkefly Ahmad’s appeal to recuse Judicial Commissioner Arziah Apandi from presiding over his RM5 million defamation suit against former prime minister Najib Razak.

A three-member bench led by Justice Choo Kah Sing, along with Justices Ahmad Kamal Md Shahid and Ong Chee Kwan, unanimously held that there was merit in the health minister’s appeal.

The court ordered that the case be remitted to the High Court to be heard by a different judge or judicial commissioner.

The court found that directions given by Arziah during last year’s case management created a real danger of bias as Dzulkefly was not given the option to proceed with mitigation to present his case.

“The judicial commissioner was alleged to have said that ‘if the matter is not settled, it will be struck out’, which is almost tantamount to a threat.

“There are sufficient elements of bias to evoke a real danger of bias,” the court said.

However, the bench clarified that the real danger of bias stemmed from Arziah’s remarks and not from her relationship with her father, Apandi Ali, who was attorney-general during Najib’s tenure.

Following the ruling, Najib’s legal team confirmed that the matter was scheduled for High Court case management tomorrow and that they would not appeal today’s decision.

Dzulkefly filed the recusal application on April 14, 2025, claiming bias based on Arziah’s remarks during case management on March 7 and April 7, 2025.

On July 29, 2025, Arziah dismissed the application, ruling that Dzulkefly had failed to prove any real risk of bias arising from her remarks or her familial connections to Apandi. Dzulkefly then filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal.

Dzulkefly filed the suit in his private capacity on Dec 31, 2021 over Najib’s claim that he had practised nepotism by securing the appointment of his daughter, Nurul Iman, to the board of Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia two years earlier.

In his statement of claim, the Kuala Selangor MP alleged that Najib’s Facebook post on Aug 24, 2020, subsequently reported by a Malay daily, had defamed him.

Najib, in his defence filed on March 29, 2022, contended that the post targeted Pakatan Harapan and was not directed at Dzulkefly personally. - FMT