Najib’s legal team concludes submission in RM42m SRC appeal

 

Najib Abdul Razak’s defence team has wrapped up its six-day submission in the former premier’s appeal over the RM42 million SRC International corruption case.

The appellant’s counsel Farhan Read (above) concluded the submission before a three-person Court of Appeal bench this afternoon.

Previously, Najib’s legal team began submitting for four days beginning April 5 last week.

However, they ended up taking additional two days - namely yesterday and today - in their arguments to quash the conviction and sentencing against Najib. 

Over the course of the six-day hearing, the appeal court heard, among other submissions, that Najib was subjected to selective prosecution, that nearly all of the RM4 billion of fund loans to SRC had been stolen, Najib never had any pecuniary interest in SRC, and that the trial judge was “motivated” to hold Najib to account. 

Former premier Najib Abdul Razak

The bench was chaired by Court of Appeal judge Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil. The other members were judges Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera and Has Zanah Mehat.

The prosecution is expected to submit a counter reply during proceedings tomorrow.

On July 28 last year, the Kuala Lumpur High Court convicted Najib on one count of abuse of power, three counts of CBT, and three counts of money laundering in relation to the RM42 million of funds from SRC.

Trial judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali had then sentenced Najib to 12 years in jail and a fine of RM210 million.

However, the lower court allowed the defence team's application to stay the sentence's execution pending the disposal of his appeal.

SRC at one point used to be a subsidiary of troubled sovereign wealth fund 1MDB. However, the company later became fully owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated.

Besides being the former premier, Najib was also the finance minister, adviser emeritus to SRC, and chairperson of 1MDB’s board of advisers. - Mkini