Najib Abdul Razak today prayed for justice in his appeal to quash his conviction and sentencing in the RM42 million SRC International corruption case.
The former prime minister expressed hope he would be granted the opportunity to clear his name through the appeal hearing before the Court of Appeal.
“I pray that justice is done and I get the opportunity to clear my name.
“It is clear that this present period is a test to my family and I, and pray to Illahi (Allah), Insyaallah (Allah willing) that what we hope for will come true,” Najib said.
He was speaking to members of the media after the Court of Appeal proceedings over his SRC appeal at the Palace of Justice in Putrajaya.
After 15 days of proceedings, Najib’s RM42 million SRC International corruption appeal hearing was wrapped up today.
The former prime minister's legal team, led by lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, completed their submissions before the three-person bench this afternoon.
The panel, chaired by Court of Appeal judge Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil, reserved its decision to a date to be fixed later. Other members of the bench were judges Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera and Has Zanah Mehat.
"This is an appeal that took a long time, compared to other appeals.
"As this appeal involved important issues, we need time to consider and make our decision.
"We will inform parties on the date of the decision when we are ready," Abdul Karim said.
Najib is appealing to quash his conviction and sentencing over seven charges of abuse of power, criminal breach of trust (CBT), and money laundering involving RM42 million in funds from SRC.
Besides being a former prime minister, the appellant also used to be finance minister, adviser emeritus of SRC, and chairperson of 1MDB’s board of advisers.
Before becoming fully owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MoF Inc), SRC was a subsidiary of troubled sovereign wealth fund 1MDB.
On July 28 last year, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur convicted Najib on one count of abuse of power, three counts of CBT, and three counts of money laundering in relation to RM42 million of funds from SRC.
In making the guilty verdict at the end of the defence stage on that day, trial judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali sentenced Najib to 12 years' jail and a fine of RM210 million.
However, the High Court allowed the defence team's application for a stay of the sentence, pending the disposal of his appeal.
The Court of Appeal initially fixed 12 days from April 5 to 22 to hear submissions from the defence and prosecution on Najib's appeal.
However, the hearing was extended twice: once for two additional days on April 27 and 28; and a second time via another extra day on May 6.
May 6 was set for Najib's legal team to mount a reply to the prosecution’s arguments for the Court of Appeal to dismiss the appeal.
However, due to a member of Najib's legal team having close contact with a Covid-19 positive patient, the May 6 hearing date was postponed to today.
During today’s hearing, Shafee submitted an alleged misdirection by Nazlan in relation to the guilty verdict against Najib.
Co-defence counsel Harvinderjit Singh also submitted in relation to Najib's three CBT charges.
In the course of the appeal hearing, Najib's legal team had submitted, among other points, that an experienced High Court trial judge was needed to hear the RM42 million SRC case; that an alleged unreliable testimony of a former SRC director should have sunk the criminal case against Najib; and that the appellant was never a 'shadow director' of SRC.
However, the prosecution countered, among other submissions, that during the High Court trial, Najib had given evasive answers over frozen SRC funds in Switzerland; that former attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali's testimony did not help the appellant; and that the reliance of the defence on BBM chats involving 1MDB-linked fugitive Low Taek Jho or Jho Low amounted to them 'scoring own goal'. - Mkini
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