The Court of Appeal has prejudged Najib Abdul Razak’s application to adduce fresh evidence in his appeal in the RM42 million SRC International corruption case, his defence counsel claimed.
Before the Federal Court this morning, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah (above) submitted that the Court of Appeal had not given the former prime minister a fair hearing in the fresh evidence bid.
The Court of Appeal on Dec 7 last year dismissed Najib’s bid to adduce fresh evidence in the SRC appeal. The same court the next day dismissed the ex-premier’s main appeal to quash his guilty verdict, 12-year jail term and RM210 million fine for the graft case.
Today’s hearing before a five-person apex court bench chaired by Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat is in relation to Najib’s appeal to adduce the fresh evidence linked to the banking information of the family of former Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz.
During the hearing before the apex bench this morning, Shafee submitted that the Court of Appeal had mishandled the hearing of Najib’s fresh evidence bid.
The defence counsel contended that the three-member Court of Appeal bench chaired by Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil had, by their conduct, made “predetermination” on the merits of the additional evidence application.
On Dec 7, the Court of Appeal had reprimanded Najib’s lawyers over Najib’s initial physical absence from proceedings that day. Later that same day, the former premier and his legal team attended proceedings via hybrid zoom proceedings.
The bench that day had also denied Shafee’s application to adjourn the hearing to another date, on the reason that a member of the legal team came down with Covid-19 and they were forced to quarantine themselves away from each other.
‘Judgement prepared months ahead’
During today’s apex court proceedings, Shafee submitted that the Court of Appeal denied Najib’s fundamental right to be heard because it denied the legal team’s bid to postpone the Dec 7 hearing to another date.
The lawyer contended that he was unable to give proper submission during the Court of Appeal hearing because he and the other defence lawyers were all forced to attend proceedings via zoom from their respective homes.
Shafee added that they were also unable to properly prepare for the hearing as the majority of the court documents were at the law firm’s office.
“In the end, the Court of Appeal compelled us to do hybrid proceedings in the interest of justice.
“But the Court of Appeal had already prepared judgement (in the main SRC appeal) months ahead.
“Why were they rushing us as the judgement (in the main SRC appeal) was still set at Dec 8 (last year),” Shafee contended.
“There was a poisoning in the manner in which the fresh evidence bid was heard by the Court of Appeal which in effect was a predetermination of the main (SRC) appeal.
“In the alternative, we seek a new (Court of Appeal quorum) to hear not only the fresh evidence but also the main (SRC appeal),” Shafee submitted.
“We never got the light of day for the right to be heard. The (Court of Appeal) judges were influenced in shutting their minds from hearing us properly,” Shafee claimed.
The prosecution, led by deputy public prosecutor V Sithambaram, is set to submit this afternoon against Najib’s appeal to adduce the fresh evidence.
Besides Maimun, the other members of today’s Federal Court panel are Court of Appeal president Rohana Yusuf, Chief Judge of Malaya Azahar Mohamed Chief, Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim, and Federal Court judge Mohd Zawawi Salleh. - Mkini
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