The Court of Appeal is to deliver its verdict on former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak's bid to quash his conviction, RM210 million fine and 12-year jail term in the RM42 million SRC International case.
Journalists allowed to enter Palace of Justice
8.07am - Officials allow journalists to enter the Palace of Justice in Putrajaya to cover the verdict of former premier Najib Abdul Razak's appeal in the SRC International case.
Najib to know his fate this morning
7.50am - Following a failed bid to adduce fresh evidence yesterday, former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak will know today whether he succeeds in his appeal to quash his conviction, RM210 million fine and 12-year jail term in the RM42 million SRC International case.
A three-person Court of Appeal bench chaired by Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil will deliver the decision via hybrid zoom proceedings this morning on whether to allow Najib’s appeal to overturn his guilty verdict as well as the sentencing for seven charges encompassing abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money laundering.
The other members of the bench are Has Zanah Mehat and Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera.
The hybrid zoom proceedings, which involves the judges and members of the prosecution team being physically at the Court of Appeal while Najib and his legal team via zoom from other locations, was necessitated by the disclosure that the former premier as well as the defence lawyers had close contact with a Covid-19 positive person.
Yesterday, the same bench dismissed Najib’s eleventh-hour application to adduce new evidence for the judges to consider in the former prime minister’s SRC appeal.
In the lead-up to today, the Court of Appeal has shot down various attempts by the defence team to postpone its verdict on Najib’s appeal.
The former premier is seeking to set aside the Kuala Lumpur High Court’s ruling on July 28 last year which found him guilty on one charge of abuse of position, three counts of criminal breach of trust, and three counts of money laundering involving RM42 million of funds from SRC.
Formerly a subsidiary of sovereign wealth fund 1MDB, SRC later became wholly-owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MoF Inc).
During his premiership, Najib was also finance minister, advisor emeritus of SRC, as well as chairperson of 1MDB’s board of advisors.
In his ruling, High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali said that the SRC case involved the worst kind of abuse of position by the highest-ranking authority in government.
However, Nazlan allowed the defence’s application to put on hold the execution of the sentences, pending disposal of Najib’s appeal at the Court of Appeal.
The 15-day hearing before the Court of Appeal began on April 5 this year, and concluded on May 18.
Lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah leads Najib’s defence team while the prosecution is led by deputy public prosecutor V Sithambaram.
[More to follow] - Mkini
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