After Strike Two, Najib to take bid to recuse Sri Ram to apex court

Najib Abdul Razak hit a second brick wall this morning in his bid to recuse Gopal Sri Ram from leading the prosecution in his 1MDB-related cases.

The Court of Appeal disagreed with the former prime minister that he could be deprived of a fair trial if Sri Ram is the prosecutor in the cases, since nothing was produced in court to lend credence to this argument.

Following this, Najib's lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah told the court that he would file an appeal with the Federal Court and seek a seven-judge quorum to hear the matter.

Justice Zabariah Mohd Yusof, who led the three-member Court of Appeal panel, ruled that Najib's appeal against the High Court decision on March 1 to dismiss his bid to disqualify Sri Ram had no merit.

“The question that needs to be asked is if the High Court did not allow the appellant to sight Sri Ram's letter of appointment, as well as allow Sri Ram to continue to act as prosecutor in cases involving the appellant, does this dispose of the appellant's rights?”

"We are of the view that it certainly does not.

"It appears that the fact of the decision of the High Court would mean that the appellant would not have the rights to sight Sri Ram's letter of appointment and that Sri Ram would continue to act as senior deputy public prosecutor in the cases involving the appellant - it does not dispose of the appellant's rights.

"We fail to see how that would affect the appellant's right to have a fair trial," Justice Zabariah said.

The other two judges were Rhodzariah Bujang and Lau Bee Lan.

Najib had alleged that Sri Ram was involved in the 1MDB investigation process and therefore should be disqualified.

However, Sri Ram denied this. He also revealed that Attorney-General Tommy Thomas appointed him to lead the prosecution on Aug 31, 2018.

Previously, High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah also ruled that Najib had no right to demand that Sri Ram produces his letter of appointment, since the document comes under the Official Secrets Act. - Mkini