SRC judge should have disclosed role in 1MDB loan - Najib's lawyer

Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali should have recused himself from hearing Najib Abdul Razak's RM42 million SRC International corruption trial, said the ex-premier's lawyer.

Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said this is because the then Kuala Lumpur High Court judge allegedly played a role in a loan for 1MDB to acquire independent power producer Tanjong Energy Holdings Sdn Bhd.

In the ongoing RM2.28 billion 1MDB corruption trial against Najib, the prosecution contended that the case's convoluted monetary trail involved the acquisition of Tanjong Energy.

Nazlan (above), who was recently elevated to a Court of Appeal judge, had convicted and sentenced Najib over the RM42 million SRC International corruption case in July 2020. Najib has a pending appeal over this at the Federal Court.

Before his stint in the judiciary, Nazlan was a corporate figure in Maybank.

SRC used to be a subsidiary of 1MDB. It then became fully owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated.

Shafee today said that Najib's defence team would be filing a fresh application before the Federal Court to adduce fresh evidence regarding Nazlan's purported conflict of interest in the SRC appeal.

'Nazlan should have disqualified himself'

Tomorrow, the Federal Court will also see a separate bid by Najib to adduce fresh evidence in the SRC appeal, namely purported 1MDB-linked banking information of the family of former Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz.

"There was over RM4 billion in loans from Maybank (to 1MDB for the Tanjong acquisition). It went through various processes in Maybank, risk committee and the entire board (of Maybank).

"One of the members of the committee that gets instructions is the legal head, the general counsel of the group, the number one head of the corporate and legal department, namely Nazlan, the judge who heard the SRC case (against Najib).

"He (Nazlan) should have disqualified himself (from the SRC trial) as he will be a witness here (Najib's 1MDB trial)," Shafee said.

"If the prosecution does not call him (Nazlan), we will call him. He went through all the processes (for the Maybank loan to 1MDB), and he formed certain opinions when the company (1MDB) failed to pay," he said.

Lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah

The lawyer was speaking to the media during a press conference after Najib's RM2.28 billion 1MDB graft trial at the Kuala Lumpur Courts Complex at Jalan Duta this afternoon.

During this afternoon's 1MDB trial before trial judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah, Nazlan's name cropped up during Shafee's cross-examination of the 12th prosecution witness, 1MDB's former chief financial officer Azmi Tahir.

In relation to the SRC appeal before the Federal Court, Najib is seeking to quash a 2020 Kuala Lumpur High Court ruling that convicted him, as well as imposed a 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.

On Dec 8 last year, the Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal to overturn the guilty verdict and sentencing in the SRC graft case.

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

Besides being the then prime minister, Najib was also the finance minister, SRC's adviser emeritus, and chairperson of 1MDB's board of advisers.

In relation to the RM2.28 billion corruption case against Najib, the prosecution stage of the trial is still ongoing before Sequerah. - Mkini