Judge should have revealed 1MDB links before start of SRC trial, says lawyer

 

PETALING JAYA: The judge presiding over the SRC International case should have revealed his links to the case prior to proceedings, a former legal adviser to Dr Mahathir Mohamad said.

Haniff Khatri Abdulla said High Court judge Nazlan Mohd Ghazali should have informed the prosecution that he was the general counsel and company secretary of a bank that approved over RM6 billion in loans to 1MDB.

This he said would allow both the prosecution and defence to raise any concerns about Nazlan presiding over the case.

“From a legal standpoint, judges involved in any way with a case must not preside over it,” he said in a video uploaded on Facebook.

And while he could not ascertain if Nazlan had any direct links to the SRC case, the latter was among those who prior to the trial had knowledge of the documents in question.

Haniff went on to say that if the Federal Court feels there is a conflict of interest or it could have influenced Nazlan’s judgment, it could quash the conviction and direct a retrial.

“But that would mean the time spent on the trial would have been a complete waste of time.”

Earlier today, Najib Razak’s defence team said they will ask for the former prime minister’s RM42 million SRC International case to be retried.

They said the request would be made if they succeed in showing there was a potential conflict of interest involving the trial judge after it was revealed that Nazlan was attached to Maybank between 2005 and 2015.

The loan from Maybank was to partly finance 1MDB’s acquisition of Tanjong Energy. SRC International was a subsidiary of 1MDB at the time the loan was made.

Najib plans to file an application to adduce evidence that Nazlan had previously been involved in approving the loans from Maybank to 1MDB.

Nazlan, who has since been elevated to the Court of Appeal, had in July 2020 convicted Najib on seven charges of abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money laundering in relation to RM42 million belonging to SRC International.

Najib was sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined RM210 million. Nazlan’s decision was affirmed by the Court of Appeal last December. Najib is appealing against the decision in the Federal Court. -  FMT