Don’t read too much into Nazlan’s transfer, say Bar, retired judge

 

A source said the transfer of judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali could be a step towards promoting him to the Court of Appeal later. (File pic)

PETALING JAYA: Malaysian Bar president Salim Bashir and a retired judge both say the transfer of judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali is a “normal” matter.

Nazlan had found former prime minister Najib Razak guilty of seven counts of corruption last year, making Najib the first former prime minister to be tried and convicted on criminal charges for actions taken while in office. Najib has filed an appeal.

A Bar Council memo yesterday stated that Chief Judge of Malaya Azahar Mohamed had directed Nazlan’s transfer from the Kuala Lumpur High Court (Criminal 3) to the Kuala Lumpur High Court (Civil 2) effective March 1.

“It’s a normal administrative transfer,” Salim told FMT.

“The judge is required to finish off his part-heard matters before his transfer date, and if he cannot, then he will need to report to the CJM (Chief Judge of Malaysia) on the status of the part-heard cases for further direction.

“If the matter is before him and it is part-heard, he needs to speed up hearings on all such matters before the March transfer order.”

The High Court is set to deliver judgment on Feb 3 on whether former Felda chairman Isa Samad is guilty of corruptly receiving about RM3 million from the purchase of a hotel in Kuching six years ago in a case being heard before Nazlan.

Nazlan was initially scheduled to preside over the RM6.6 billion criminal breach of trust (CBT) case of Najib Razak and former Treasury secretary-general Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah this September.

However, the case will now be heard before High Court judge Muhammad Jamil Hussin according to a letter received by the prosecution from the High Court deputy registrar on Oct 7 last year.

A retired judge has also said that transfers such as Nazlan’s are “normal”, stating that sometimes judges themselves make such requests as they want a “change of experience”.

“Nothing should be read into this transfer of Nazlan,” he said.

Another source, meanwhile, said that Nazlan’s transfer could be a step towards promoting him to the Court of Appeal later.

“This is to allow him to have experience handling commercial cases before he can be elevated to the Court of Appeal,” he said.

According to circulars on the Bar Council’s website, the last such transfer saw High Court judge Tun Abdul Majid Tun Hamzah transferred from the Shah Alam High Court’s civil division to its appellate and special powers division on Jan 6, 2020.

Nazlan presided over last year’s RM1 million graft case involving former minister Tengku Adnan Mansor in which the prosecution applied for a discharge not amounting to an acquittal due to some “new developments”.

Appointed as a judicial commissioner in April 2015 and elevated as a High Court judge in January 2017, Nazlan made a ruling last year that judges could consider bail applications even if an accused was charged with a terrorism-related offence.

His ruling appeared to have been endorsed by the Federal Court in a recent case by a bench chaired by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat.

In a Facebook post today, Najib said Nazlan was “suddenly transferred” from the civil court to handle his case in the criminal court by the then-Chief Judge of Malaya, who was appointed to the post the week before.

“This was even though the SRC case was already under way. This became his (Nazlan’s) first High Court criminal case,” said Najib.

“Now he is being transferred back to the civil court.”

Najib’s SRC trial was initially heard before Mohd Sofian Abd Razak.

On 4 July 2018, Najib pleaded not guilty before Sofian to three counts of CBT and one count of abuse of power involving SRC International Sdn Bhd funds totalling RM42 million.

It was reported that the Malaysian Bar had called for Sofian to recuse himself from the case as his elder brother, Mohd Soffi, held a position in Umno as well as the Pahang state government.

Najib is the Pekan MP. - FMT