People are afraid of defending Najib, says Zaid

 

Lawyer Zaid Ibrahim said he was disappointed with the attitude of certain parties who claimed to be defenders of the rule of law but had acted in the opposite manner in Najib Razak’s SRC International case.

PETALING JAYA: Former law minister Zaid Ibrahim claims that the public is living in fear of action by the authorities if they make statements in defence of former prime minister Najib Razak, who is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence after his conviction in the SRC International case.

Speaking at an event in Pekan, Zaid referred to the police investigation into Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi following his speech about Najib’s case at a briefing last week, and the investigation into several other party leaders under the Communications and Multimedia Act, as examples of the risks members of the public face when they “talk about Najib or even Umno”.

“We are living in an environment of fear because there are leaders who hide behind the law for their own political purposes.

“Every Umno member must be brave as they are surrounded by the enemy,” said Zaid, without naming the leader in question.

-ADVERTISEMENT-

Ads by 

“This situation will harm this country.

“If selective prosecution continues and if certain evidence (brought by) government agencies is not accepted for trial without good reason, then many political leaders will bear the brunt of this in the future.

“They will become political prisoners like Najib,” he said, according to the text of his speech obtained by FMT.

Zaid, who was speaking at the “Solidarity For Najib Razak” event, also said many believed that those in power were using certain institutions to “eliminate political enemies”.

He said there was an urgent need to overhaul the Attorney-General’s Chambers to ensure it was not used for such purposes.

“(No longer) can there be selective prosecution, and no longer can there be an order from the attorney-general to expedite certain cases,” said Zaid.

“The attorney-general serves only the people, not the prime minister,” he said, going on to insist that Umno-Barisan Nasional must win in the next general election (GE15) to implement these reforms.

Zaid also said he was disappointed with the “two-faced” attitude of certain parties, including political parties, and the leadership of the Bar Council, who claimed to be defenders of the rule of law but had acted in the opposite manner in Najib’s case.

Zaid said this was evident when they turned their backs or remained silent when some basic legal principles were violated, simply because they considered the former prime minister as an enemy.

“Isn’t it strange when the lawyer who defends the accused (Najib) is not defended by the Bar Council?

“In fact, the Bar Council considers the lawyer’s actions as only delaying the (court) process,” he said.

“The opposition parties that always talk about the abuse of the criminal justice system are silent on what happened to Najib simply because he is their political enemy.

“These are leaders who are not loyal to the struggle in defending the principles of justice. They only know how to play politics,” said Zaid, who is also a former Kota Bharu MP.

Zaid also talked about what he described as various injustices in Najib’s case, including the Federal Court’s rejection of an application by Zaid’s law firm to be given more time to prepare for the former prime minister’s final appeal.

Zaid’s firm was appointed to handle the appeal three weeks before it was heard by the Federal Court. This came after the court refused to allow Najib to appoint a Queen’s Counsel from the United Kingdom.

However, Zaid said that three weeks was not enough time to examine the thousands of documents and witness statements needed to prepare an effective appeal.

He also talked about trial judge Nazlan Ghazali, who did not declare his involvement in SRC when he was a lawyer representing Maybank, and the Federal Court’s refusal to accept evidence regarding the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s investigation of the judge.

Zaid said many questions were still unanswered even though the SRC case was considered to be over.

Zaid believed that many people do not realise that a large amount from the loans obtained by SRC from the Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP) was still in the custody of banks in Switzerland and had not been repatriated to Malaysia.

“It seems that certain parties want this matter to be kept quiet at this time to strengthen the propaganda that Najib stole SRC money,” said Zaid.

Najib is currently serving a 12-year jail term at the Kajang prison after the Federal Court upheld his conviction and sentence in the SRC case on Aug 23. - FMT