In a bid to recuse former judge Gopal Sri Ram from leading the prosecution in the upcoming 1MDB trial, lawyers for Najib Abdul Razak are tendering new evidence at the Court of Appeal.
The evidence – a copy of Sri Ram's letter of appointment as a deputy public prosecutor signed by Attorney-General Tommy Thomas – was acquired by the former premier's lawyers on Aug 9.
Lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah told the court that a notice of motion to submit the letter as evidence was filed yesterday.
He said that this was to prove that Sri Ram was wrongly appointed, in that the Criminal Procedure Code provision cited in the letter, Section 376, is only meant for current civil servants.
Section 376 pertains to the appointment of "fit and proper persons" as deputy public prosecutors under the general control and direction of the public prosecutor.
Shafee (photo) added that Sri Ram's appointment should also be only on an ad hoc and case-by-case basis, instead of a blanket appointment.
The lawyer said his team also filed another notice of motion to submit the same letter as evidence in a civil appeal to recuse Sri Ram from prosecuting his client's RM9.5 million money laundering case, which is also 1MDB-related.
Shafee then asked the court to allow both matters to be heard together and made into a single judgement, saying that both are identical in terms of argument and application.
"In relation to the motion, in Najib's matter, we filed the notice through the court's e-filing (system) on Aug 15.
"The Federal Court granted the letter on Aug 7, and ordered for it to be served within three days, after which we received the letter on Aug 9, which is a Friday.
"I am just stating this as a matter of fact. So that explains that because of our engagement in the SRC International trial, we only filed (the notice) yesterday," he said.
The three-member panel of judges led by Hasnah Mohammed Hashim then fixed Aug 26 to hear the motion, after which it will hear the main applications. The panel also comprised Lau Bee Lan and Has Zanah Mehat.
Najib and Shafee filed their appeals after the Kuala Lumpur High Court (civil) dismissedtheir application for a judicial review to remove Sri Ram from the 1MDB cases.
High Court judge Azizah Nawawi found that it was more suitable for the matter to be handled by a criminal court.
Besides the civil applications, Najib and Shafee had also tried to remove Sri Ram through applications at the criminal courts, but this proved unsuccessful.
Last week, a seven-member Federal Court panel led by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat dismissed Najib's appeal for having no merit.
However, the panel allowed a portion of his appeal – for the prosecution to produce a copy of Sri Ram's letter of appointment as deputy public prosecutor. - Mkini
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