Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat’s husband’s 2018 posting on Facebook did not contain personal animosity against then-prime minister Najib Abdul Razak, according to a written submission of the prosecution.
In the filing to rebut Najib’s review application against his conviction and sentencing in the RM42 million SRC International corruption case, prosecutors contended that Zamani Ibrahim’s posting was a mere personal commentary on the political scenario that led up to the 14th general election (GE14) nearly five years ago.
Prosecutors contended that Najib - who previously mounted an unsuccessful bid to recuse Tengku Maimun (above) for conflict of interest linked to the FB posting - knew about the online post and did nothing with it until filing the recusal application in August last year.
They contended that the recusal application was a desperate last-minute attempt to scuttle the SRC appeal pending before the bench which was headed by Tengku Maimun at the time.
The bench had dismissed Najib’s appeal on Aug 23 last year, leading to the present review application before a separate five-person Federal Court bench chaired by Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Abdul Rahman Sebli.
“The posting does not show that Zamani had any personal animosity towards the applicant (Najib) but it was general comments of the rakyat on Facebook,” the written submissions read.
Yesterday during the hearing of the review application, lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah submitted that Tengku Maimun should not have been part of the previous apex court bench due to the alleged conflict of interest arising from the Facebook post.
Shafee contended that this could happen due to the close union between a husband and wife, which could lead to the sharing of opinions.
In the written submission, prosecutors further contended that there is no nexus between the Facebook post on May 11, 2018, and Najib’s SRC appeal heard in August last year, pointing out that there were no criminal proceedings pending against the former premier when the post was made.
“The respondent (prosecution) stresses that mere reliance solely on the spousal relationship to ascribe Zamani’s view in DSN-12 (exhibit number for the Facebook post) as the view of the honourable chief justice (Tengku Maimun) is in itself absurd and insufficient to give rise to actual or apparent bias.
“Especially when the alleged influence is based on a posting that was four years ago before the SRC prosecution (commenced on July 4, 2018),” prosecutors contended.
Today is set for the fourth day of the apex court hearing of the SRC review application, with lead deputy public prosecutor V Sithambaram presenting oral submissions to counter the review bid.
Among the grounds cited for the review was quorum failure due to Tengku Maimun being part of the apex bench that dismissed Najib’s SRC appeal on Aug 23, last year.
Having exhausted his appeals before the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court, Najib has gone before the current Federal Court panel to hear his review over the case involving one count of abuse of power, three counts of criminal breach of trust, and three money laundering charges involving RM42 million of funds from SRC.
Incarcerated in the Kajang Prison, Najib is also pursuing other avenues outside the judiciary, namely a petition for a royal pardon as well as a petition before the United Nations over his alleged arbitrary detention.
Through the present review application, Najib contends that trial judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali, who has since been elevated from the High Court to the Court of Appeal, was in a conflict of interest when he heard and decided on the SRC case in 2020.
Najib claimed, among others, that it was because the judge was allegedly aware it was Maybank Investment (an entity of Maybank Group) and BinaFikir (another entity of Maybank Group) that advised Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1MDB in the matters pertaining to the setting up of SRC International.
Najib alleged that the conflict of interest arose due to Nazlan’s previous role as a general counsel with Maybank.
Initially a subsidiary of 1MDB, SRC became fully owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MoF Inc). 1MDB is also fully owned by MoF Inc.
Among the possible outcomes of the review are that Najib gets a full acquittal, has his appeal re-heard by a different Federal Court bench, or that he gets a retrial of the SRC case before a new High Court judge.
Besides targeting the previous apex court decision to uphold Najib’s SRC conviction and sentencing, the former prime minister’s review bid also targets the previous panel’s three other decisions.
They are the decisions denying his bid to produce additional evidence to strengthen the allegations against Nazlan; rejecting his bid to postpone the appeal hearing; and denying his application to recuse Tengku Maimun. - Mkini
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