Top Umno leaders have been accused of launching coordinated attacks on the judiciary following legal setbacks faced by former Umno president Najib Abdul Razak.
Pejuang legal counsel Muhammad Rafique Rashid Ali said that when the Federal Court rejected Najib's bid to introduce "new evidence" on Tuesday, Umno leaders were quiet.
"However, last night, the Umno propaganda started. Top Umno leaders - their president, deputy president and youth chief - issued statements which can be construed as questioning the decisions of the Federal Court," said Rafique in a statement today.
The trio - Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Mohamad Hasan, and Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki - all issued statements yesterday suggesting that Najib's attempt to introduce "new evidence" at the Federal Court was rejected due to a "technicality".
The "new evidence", according to Najib's defence team, was that High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Ghazali should have disqualified himself from presiding over the trial.
Nazlan eventually found Najib guilty of abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money laundering in relation to RM42 million from state-owned SRC International Sdn Bhd.
Among others, Najib's defence team argued that Nazlan was a former employee at Maybank at a time when the bank did business with entities involved with SRC International.
Countering Umno’s statements, Rafique said the Federal Court judges determined that there was no conflict of interest in how Nazlan arrived at his decision against Najib.
"The charges against Najib involved abuse of power, breach of trust, and money laundering. That was the rationale used by the Federal Court to reject Najib's application to introduce new evidence," said Rafique.
Separately, Amanah communications director Khalid Abdul Samad told reporters that Umno was engaging in "serangan terancang" (planned attacks) on the courts and judiciary.
"(They are doing so) ostensibly because Najib was being denied justice because he was not allowed to introduce new evidence.
"What do you want to achieve? Do you want to destroy public confidence in the judiciary? Do you want chaos? Anarchy? Are you against the court’s decision because they didn't follow Najib's instructions?
"These are all delaying tactics, including the (last minute) change in defence counsels," said Khalid. - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.