The two monetary flow charts revealed by then attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali five years ago already showed it was not Arab donations that went into Najib Abdul Razak’s accounts, said the Court of Appeal.
A three-person bench, chaired by judge Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil, unanimously ruled that the flow charts that Apandi (above) showed to the media in January 2016, actually showed that it was the company’s funds that flowed into Najib’s accounts.
“In fact, DW14 (14th defence witness Apandi) confirmed that the two flow charts that he held during his press conference on Jan 26, 2016, to exonerate the appellant (Najib) were the same flow charts that were tendered in evidence by the prosecution (during the RM42 million SRC corruption trial against the appellant).
“The said flow charts clearly show the funds of SRC entering the appellant’s bank accounts, and that they were not Arab donations as contended by the appellant.
“In any event, the opinion and decision of an attorney-general do not bind his successor. The attorney-general of the day is free to decide and exercise his constitutional and legal powers in accordance with the law.
“The discretion to charge any person, even if the previous attorney-general had chosen not to, vests with the attorney-general of the day pursuant to Article 145(3) of the Federal Constitution,” ruled the Court of Appeal bench, which also comprised Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera and Has Zanah Mehat.
This was a portion of the 317-page full grounds of judgment for yesterday’s dismissal of the former prime minister’s appeal to reverse his conviction as well as 12-year jail term and RM210 million fine over one count of abuse of power, three counts of criminal breach of trust (CBT), and three counts of money laundering involving RM42 million of funds from SRC.
Investigation papers
On Jan 26, 2016, Apandi, while holding up the monetary flow charts during a media briefing, announced that no charges would be brought against then prime minister Najib, based on the investigations carried out by MACC.
The then top government lawyer said he had studied the investigation papers and was satisfied that there were no grounds for action.
However, during the Pakatan Harapan administration in 2018, the prosecution under Apandi's successor Tommy Thomas hauled Najib to court over the RM42 million SRC corruption case.
In the course of the SRC trial, Najib’s defence team contended, among other things, that the RM42 million was part of an alleged donation from Saudi royalty rather than funds from the company.
However, in its unanimous ruling, the Court of Appeal ruled that the Arab donation defence was “untenable”.
Previously a subsidiary of 1MDB, SRC later became fully owned by Minister of Finance Incorporated (MOF Inc).
Besides being former prime minister, Najib also used to be finance minister, SRC’s adviser emeritus, and chairperson of 1MDB’s board of advisers.
However, there is a stay of execution on the custodial sentence and fine, pending disposal of Najib's appeal to the Federal Court.
Available material
According to the full grounds of judgment, the Court of Appeal noted the trial judge (Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali) correctly disregarded Apandi’s testimony that he exonerated Najib then of any wrongdoing in the SRC matter.
The bench pointed out that during the defence stage of Najib’s SRC trial, Apandi conceded that his decision was made based on available material in the investigation papers as of Jan 26, 2016.
“DW14 further agreed that he was not aware that thereafter a further 76 new statements and several further statements were recorded from witnesses relevant to the investigations.
“The learned trial judge had considered DW14’s evidence and concluded that his evidence does not cast any doubt on the prosecution case, simply because there had been further investigations after January 2016.
“DW14’s conclusions and instructions in January 2016 were based on investigations conducted till then,” the Court of Appeal said. - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.