PETALING JAYA: Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has called for calm after Najib Razak’s SRC International conviction and sentence were upheld by the Federal Court yesterday.
The former prime minister is now in Kajang Prison serving his 12-year jail term, with Zahid ruing the court’s decision to turn down Najib’s bids to adduce new evidence and adjourn the case to give his defence team more time to prepare.
“To all Umno members, we need to be calm and determined to correct all the flaws in the system to ensure justice,” said Zahid in a Facebook post.
“This includes former attorney-general Tommy Thomas’ exposure of political interference by the Pakatan Harapan prime minister (Dr Mahathir Mohamad) in the appointment of judges and the administration of the country’s legal system.”
In June, Thomas said Mahathir “used the courts” to stop his then deputy, Anwar Ibrahim, from succeeding him as prime minister in the late 1990s.
In an interview with China Press, Thomas also claimed Anwar was imprisoned by Mahathir as the latter “felt threatened by him”.
Thomas was also reported as saying that he thought Anwar would eventually take over as prime minister from Mahathir, only for him to be sacked as deputy prime minister in 1998 before being charged and imprisoned for alleged sodomy and corruption.
Thomas was appointed the attorney-general by Mahathir in 2018 after Pakatan Harapan took over the federal government and remained in the post until March 2020, when the government collapsed.
Najib was among those who called for Mahathir to explain his comments.
Najib was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment and a fine of RM210 million in 2020 after he was convicted on seven charges brought against him for abuse of power, money laundering and criminal breach of trust over SRC International funds amounting to RM42 million.
His conviction was upheld by the Court of Appeal in December 2021 and affirmed by the Federal Court yesterday.
Zahid said even though Najib is in prison, the former Umno president’s “fighting spirit” to help the party rise again after defeat at the last general election “still burns strong”.
He said the party will continue to support Najib in the other court cases he faces to ensure he “gets justice and is not a victim of political persecution”. - FMT
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