Appeals court needs to clarify whether Najib’s conviction is stayed: Lawyer

 

The Court of Appeal needs to confirm whether it allowed a stay on Najib Abdul Razak’s conviction over the RM42 million SRC International corruption case, urged a lawyer.

Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla (above) today said the clarification is needed because any stay order on the conviction could arguably still allow the former prime minister to qualify as a candidate for any general election, should one be called while the appeal is still ongoing at the Federal Court.

Yesterday, it was reported that following the Court of Appeal dismissing Najib’s appeal to quash his conviction and sentencing in the RM42 million SRC case, the three-person bench also allowed the defence team’s application for stay of execution on the sentencing, pending appeal to the Federal Court.

When contacted this afternoon, deputy public prosecutor Mohd Ashrof Adrin Kamarul confirmed that the stay order is on both the conviction as well as on the sentencing, pending disposal of Najib’s appeal at the Federal Court.

In a press statement today, Haniff said a clarification from the Court of Appeal is necessary due to non-clarity from media reports yesterday as to whether the stay order only covered sentencing or also encompassed the conviction on one count of abuse of power, three counts of criminal breach of trust (CBT), and three counts of money laundering.

“Furthermore, it needs to be appreciated that a stay order on sentencing and/or stay order on conviction has differing impact and effect under various constitutional and legal provisions against the appellant (Najib)... all this needs to be known and understood accurately and correctly by the people to avoid widespread confusion.

“Therefore, I would be grateful if the office of the Court of Appeal registrar can issue a clarification regarding this matter as soon as possible,” Haniff said.

Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak

Article 48(5) of the Federal Constitution

When contacted by Malaysiakini this afternoon, the lawyer explained that the clarification is important as a stay on the guilty verdict would arguably still allow Najib to be nominated as a candidate for any general election that could hypothetically be called while the appeal is still underway at the Federal Court.

Haniff said this is because Article 48(5) of the Federal Constitution allows the appellant, in theory, to still qualify to be nominated as a candidate in any general election that may be called while the stay on the conviction is still in effect.

Article 48(1)(e) of the Federal Constitution states that a convict sentenced to one year or above in jail, or fined RM2,000 or more, is disqualified from being an MP.

Najib, who is Pekan MP, was sentenced to 12 years in jail as well as an RM210 million fine in lieu of an additional five years.

Article 48(4) does allow for the disqualification of a current parliamentarian to be postponed pending the disposal of his or her appeal.

However, Clause 5 states that Clause 4 does not apply for the purpose of nomination, election, or appointment to Parliament.

Yesterday, a three-person Court of Appeal bench chaired by Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil dismissed Najib’s appeal to reverse his conviction as well as a 12-year jail term and RM210 million fine over the seven charges linked to SRC funds.

Previously a subsidiary of 1MDB, SRC later became fully owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated.

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