PKR president Anwar Ibrahim and his deputy president Rafizi Ramli have both taken jabs at the reshuffling of former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak’s legal team for the appeal of his RM42 million SRC International case at the Federal Court.
Observers have previously criticised the last-minute change of lawyers as a delay tactic after Hisyam Teh Poh Teik unsuccessfully attempted to discharge himself as Najib’s legal counsel after being denied a postponement last week.
Anwar, who had undergone two extremely high-profile court cases which resulted in him being jailed, said his lawyers had never tried to delay his case in the manner seen in Najib’s appeal.
“The important thing is, my lawyers, under any circumstances, had never tried to halt proceedings by withdrawing or discharging themselves from the case.
“They fought on even though they knew the system under the prime ministers at the time would not accept all the facts,” Anwar said in a three-minute video on Facebook today.
He also pointed out that in his most recent case, where he was sentenced to five years in prison, his legal team was forced to request a postponement after his lead counsel Karpal Singh suddenly passed away from a road accident.
He said the postponement request was because they needed time to appoint someone new to take over from Karpal.
“That wasn’t about trying to find a tactic to delay things by throwing (the lawyer away) and taking on another legal team, no. There was a death,” Anwar said.
He noted that despite Karpal’s death, the court dismissed their postponement request and the case proceeded immediately.
Anwar recalled that the progress of his case was so quick that on the day of his conviction, even though the court usually finished by 5pm, the court deliberated and decided on his appeal on the same day by 6.45pm.
Free representation
Rafizi shared his experiences with his lawyers, who he said usually represented him for free because they know he “does not have money and will not be able to afford expensive lawyers like Najib”.
Recounting the 14 times he has been sued in civil cases or charged with criminal cases over his exposes, Rafizi said his lawyer friends have never shunned him and can even joke with him over his court cases.
“We have never had to sumpah laknat (religious oath) because we are confident that the evidence and facts are clear.
“We did not pull stunts over and over again in court by changing lawyers one by one like watching videos on TikTok.
“We did not search for all sorts of reasons to delay the trial,” he said on Facebook today.
This is because, he said, court cases are easy to face when one is innocent but it becomes difficult when one is afraid of receiving punishment over the wrongs they committed.
Multiple failed attempts
Najib’s SRC appeal, which started last week, saw his lawyer Hisyam unsuccessfully attempting to discharge himself from the case.
This comes after their request to adduce fresh evidence to the case and a separate request to postpone the hearing by three to four months were denied by the bench.
After Hisyam’s attempt failed, Najib then decided to discharge the legal firm Zaid Ibrahim Suflan TH Liew & Partners from representing him, with Hisyam remaining as his only legal counsel.
In today’s hearing, Hisyam announced that Najib’s former counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah would be returning to assist him in the case.
Najib had also performed a sumpah mubahalah oath last Sunday, which he said was to clear his and his parents’ names. - Mkini
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