Apex court adjourns hearing to tomorrow
12.40pm: The five-person apex court bench chaired by Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Abdul Rahman Sebli adjourns hearing for the day, and to resume tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow, lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah is expected to continue his oral submissions and if he wraps it up tomorrow, lead deputy public prosecutor V Sithambaram is expected to mount his rebuttal submissions.
‘Najib's trial rushed for GE15’
12.03pm: Lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah says that last year's apex court hearing of Najib Abdul Razak's SRC International appeal was hurried and concluded months before the 15th general election (GE15) - held on Nov 19, last year.
"Can you blame my client if he entertained the notion that he did not get justice as the election was around the corner, that he was thrown away," Shafee tells the apex court today.
At this juncture, lead deputy public prosecutor V Sithambaram objects against this line of oral submission for deviating from what was in the written submission, urging the defence counsel to not raise speculations.
Shafee counters that the defence team is not saying the apex court last year "went through a dishonest process", adding that his client could not be blamed for entertaining the perception.
Shafee then informs the present bench to take judicial notice of the issue before the counsel goes into a different topic of submissions.
‘First time apex court didn’t allow lawyer to discharge’
11.44am: Lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah submits that the previous apex court bench’s decision not to allow Najib's application to adjourn the SRC International appeal hearing was the first time such a thing happened in Malaysia’s court history.
Najib Abdul Razak's lead lawyer is referring to a decision by the then Federal Court bench - chaired by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat - to deny an application by the former prime minister's then counsel for three to four-month adjournment of the appeal hearing.
"This was the first time it happened in our jurisdiction. When the massive appeal came up, there was a change of solicitors," Shafee tells the present bench chaired by Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak, Abdul Rahman Sebli.
The lawyer says that the outcome of the apex court hearing last year - which upheld Najib's conviction and sentencing in the SRC graft case - was such that it amounted to Najib not getting a hearing at all.
Shafee then cites several case laws, such as R v Thames (1972), which dealt with the issue of reasonable opportunity that must be given to a person to present his case in court.
Shafee contends that the apex court last year not allowing the adjournment led to the then legal team being unable to present submissions for Najib.
Najib not given fair trial in SRC appeal - Shafee
11.08am: Lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah submits that former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak was not given a fair trial during the Federal Court hearing of his SRC International appeal last year.
Shafee says it was because the previous apex bench - headed by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat - did not allow an application by Najib's then-lawyers to adjourn the appeal hearing so they could prepare for it, as well as disallowed an application by Najib's then counsel, Hisyam Teh Poh Teik to discharge himself during the hearing.
Shafee contends that Hisyam then wanted to discharge himself as the latter was not prepared to argue Najib's appeal when the then apex court bench disallowed the application to adjourn the hearing to help the former premier's legal team to prepare for the appeal.
The lawyer points out that this resulted in a situation where Najib's legal team did not make oral submissions during the hearing, and that only the prosecution - who is the respondent in the appeal - had presented oral submissions.
"Purportedly, the respondent (prosecution) alluded to what was our case from their point of view, which is not a fair trial as one must hear the person bringing up the appeal," Shafee tells the present apex court bench presided by Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak, Abdul Rahman Sebli.
Audio restored, hearing resumes
10.53am: The Palace of Justice technicians manage to restore the audio connection in the apex courtroom and the proceedings resumed.
While waiting for proceedings to resume, former premier Najib Abdul Razak is seen in the public gallery conferring with Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
Najib's wife, Rosmah Mansor is seen sitting nearby, while red-hat-clad officers from Kajang Prison are looking on.
Court temporarily halts proceedings to repair audio issue
10.11am: The apex court proceedings temporarily stand down following issues from a faulty audio system.
The bench will reconvene when the audio issues are rectified.
The audio issue is also experienced in a separate courtroom where media representatives are following the review proceedings - whereby there was no audio on the live stream feed of the proceedings.
Shafee: Apex court erred in not allowing counsel to discharge
10.10am: Lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah submits that the previous apex court bench - which dismissed Najib Abdul Razak's SRC International appeal last year - had erred by not allowing the former premier's then-defence counsel to discharge during the appeal hearing.
Shafee tells the present apex court bench that a court has no power to stop a counsel from discharging himself in the middle of an appeal hearing except in certain circumstances.
Shafee contents that case law points out that a court is not without remedy in the event that a counsel decides to discharge himself during a hearing, including bringing contempt proceedings against the discharging lawyer.
Last year during the SRC International review hearing before the then-bench chaired by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, it denied an application by Najib's then-counsel Hisyam Teh Poh Teik to discharge himself in the middle of the appeal hearing then.
This forms part of the grounds of the present review.
SRC International review hearing commences
10am: Former premier Najib Abdul Razak enters the dock as the apex court bench convenes.
Also seen in the public gallery looking on is Najib's wife, Rosmah Mansor.
Najib's lead defence counsel arrives
9.42am: Najib Abdul Razak's lead counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah and other members of the defence team are seen in court.
It is understood that the proceedings would begin soon.
Najib arrives at court
9.38am: SRC International review applicant Najib Abdul Razak is seen in the public gallery, surrounded by several red-hat-clad officers from the Kajang Prison.
While waiting for the hearing to begin, the former prime minister is seen conferring with several individuals.
Sithambaram, DPPs enter the court
8.45am: Lead deputy public prosecutor V Sithambaram is seen entering the courtroom to await for proceedings to begin.
Also seen with him are DPP Mohd Ashrof Adrin Kamarul and other members of the prosecution team.
Palace of Justice staffers are also seen preparing the bench for the upcoming proceedings today.
Today is the second day of the hearing of Najib Abdul Razak’s review bid to overturn his guilty verdict, as well as the 12-year jail sentence and RM210 million fine in a corruption case involving RM42 million of funds from SRC International.
The Federal Court bench, headed by Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Abdul Rahman Sebli, is expected to continue hearing oral submissions from the former prime minister’s lead defence counsel, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah where he left off back on Jan 19 last month.
On that date, Shafee, among others, submitted that there was no conspiracy between him and Najib’s then-lawyers from the law firm Zaid Ibrahim Sufian TH Liew and Partners to delay the hearing of Najib’s appeal before the Federal Court last year.
The current panel also comprises Federal Court judges Vernon Ong Lam Kiat, Rhodzariah Bujang and Nordin Hassan - as well as Court of Appeal judge Abu Bakar Jais.
The bench has also fixed tomorrow and Wednesday for the hearing of Najib’s review application.
Having exhausted his appeals before the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court, the former finance minister has gone before the current apex court panel to hear his review.
On Aug 23 last year, a five-person Federal Court bench chaired by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat dismissed Najib’s appeal in the case involving one count of abuse of power, three counts of criminal breach of trust, and three money laundering charges.
The then apex court bench was presided over by then chief judge of Sabah and Sarawak Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim, as well as Federal Court judges P Nallini, Mary Lim Thiam Suan and Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah.
Iskandar and Zabidin have recently been elevated to Court of Appeal president and Chief Judge of Malaya, respectively.
Currently incarcerated at Kajang Prison, Najib is also pursuing other avenues outside the judiciary, namely a petition for 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 Kuala Lumpur High Court to the Court of Appeal, was in a conflict of interest when he heard and decided on the SRC International case.
Najib claimed, among others, that it was because the judge was allegedly aware that it was Maybank Investment (an entity of Maybank Group) and BinaFikir (another entity of Maybank Group) that provided the advice to 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 general counsel with Maybank.
Initially a subsidiary of Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 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 reheard by a different apex court bench, or that he gets a retrial of the SRC International case before a new High Court judge.
Besides targeting the previous apex court decision to uphold Najib’s SRC International conviction and sentencing, the former premier’s review also targets the previous panel’s three other decisions.
These are the decisions to deny his bid to produce additional evidence to strengthen the allegations against Nazlan; to reject his bid to postpone the appeal hearing; and to deny his application to recuse Tengku Maimun.
Ad hoc deputy public prosecutor V Sithambaram heads the prosecution for the SRC International review proceedings. - Mkini
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