Shafee, Sithambaram ‘cowards’, want drama, not justice, says Zaid

 

Zaid Ibrahim (left) said he was a ‘punching bag’ for Shafee Abdullah (centre) and V Sithambaram, who ignored the real issue, which was whether Najib Razak got a fair trial.

PETALING JAYA: Former law minister Zaid Ibrahim has hit out at lawyers Shafee Abdullah and V Sithambaram, accusing them of being more interested in “courtroom drama” than justice in Najib Razak’s SRC International case.

“On one hand, Shafee attacked me in court and made disparaging remarks about my competency for the sake of his application for Najib’s judicial review,” he told FMT.

Previously, Shafee claimed that Zaid’s firm, Zaid Ibrahim Suflan TH Liew & Partners, had not practised criminal law, and was not equipped to handle complicated cases such as the one Najib was facing.

“Yesterday, Sithambaram accused us of taking over Najib’s case with the intent of seeking an adjournment. The fact remains I never sought an adjournment.”

He was referring to Sithambaram’s remarks in court that Zaid’s firm should not have taken over the case if they were not prepared to proceed with the appeal as scheduled.

Zaid said both Shafee and Sithambaram were using him as a “punching bag” for their respective arguments when the real issue was whether Najib got a fair trial.

“I agreed to be part of Najib’s defence team because I believed there were merits in his appeal. My firm were the solicitors on record, but we were not the lead counsel. Hisyam Teh (Poh Teik) was the lead counsel.”

Zaid said his firm only helped prepare the submissions in connection with Najib’s application to adduce new evidence in his appeal, which was ultimately rejected.

“That was the end of our involvement. So why attack me? We were never invited to address the court, let alone ask for an adjournment.

“Shafee and Sithambaram are cowards for using the court to cast aspersions on my character,” he said.

In July last year, Najib appointed Zaid’s firm to act as solicitors for his SRC appeal while Hisyam led the defence team.

The defence team proceeded with the application for leave to adduce new evidence, but asked for a postponement of the hearing of the appeal proper scheduled to run from Aug 15 to 26, 2022.

The grounds put forward were that they had only taken over the case less than one month earlier. They requested three to four months to prepare for the appeal. However, the postponement bid was rejected.

This prompted Najib to discharge Zaid’s firm as his solicitors.

Asked by the court to proceed with the appeal, Hisyam applied to discharge himself as Najib’s counsel as he was not prepared to argue the case, but was barred by the Federal Court from doing so.

Najib is currently serving a 12-year jail term after his conviction and sentencing in the SRC case was upheld by the Federal Court.

Last year, he filed a motion to review the ruling on the grounds that the court had breached the principles of natural justice, including his right to a fair trial and to counsel. - FMT