Dr M’s review bid in misfeasance of public office suit against Najib dismissed

The Federal Court today dismissed former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and former Batu Kawan Umno vice-chief’s application to review a previous court ruling in their misfeasance of public office lawsuit against Najib Abdul Razak.

Mahathir and Khairuddin Abu Hassan sought to review the earlier decision of the Federal Court which disallowed their application for leave to appeal against the High Court and Court of Appeal's decisions which struck out their lawsuit.

A three-member bench led by Chief Judge of Malaya Azahar Mohamed, in a unanimous decision today, said the case was not an exceptional case for the court to exercise its review power.

“In our opinion, the present application does not meet the strict requirements under Rule 137 of the Rules of the Federal Court 1995,” he said.

Justice Azahar said the case of bias was not made up.

“We did not see any miscarriage of justice,” added Azahar who presided with Federal Court judges Zabariah Mohd Yusof and Hasnah Mohammed Hashim.

He also ordered the applicants to pay RM30,000 in costs.

Mahathir and Khairuddin sued Najib on March 23, 2016, accusing Najib of having committed misfeasance in public office and acting in breach of his fiduciary duty over the management of sovereign investment fund 1MDB.

On April 28, 2017, the High Court allowed Najib's application to strike out the suit, ruling that the former prime minister was not a public officer but a member of the administration.

On Aug 30, 2017, the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal brought by Mahathir and Khairuddin.

Mahathir and Khairuddin could not proceed with their appeal in the Federal Court, in their bid to reinstate the suit as the Federal Court three-member bench led by former chief justice Raus Sharif refused to grant them leave to appeal on Feb 27, 2018.

In today's proceedings, lawyer Haniff Khatri Abdulla appearing for Mahathir and Khairuddin submitted that the decision of the earlier Federal Court panel to dismiss the leave to appeal application as well as the application for recusal of Raus was unfounded.

He argued that Raus should have disqualified himself from hearing the leave to appeal because Mahathir had filed a judicial review to challenge the validity of his (Raus) appointment as an additional judge after he reached the mandatory retirement age of 66 years.

Raus, however, did not recuse himself and instead, went ahead to hear the leave to appeal application.

Lawyer Mohd Hafarizam Harun said the subject matter was academic as the Federal Court has already decided on a similar issue in the case involving Damansara MP Tony Pua against Najib.

He said the review was only for limited and exceptional circumstances and the applicants' case does not fit into these circumstances.

Hafarizam said the decision by the previous Federal Court panel not to recuse Raus from hearing the leave to appeal was not biased and was a matter of discretion of the court.

Senior federal counsel S Nakunavathy held a watching brief for the government.

- Bernama