The Court of Appeal has set Sept 12 for open-court mention of the prosecution’s appeal against the acquittal of former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak and 1MDB former CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy, following prosecutors not having filed the petition of appeal.
Najib’s counsel Alaistair Brandah Norman confirmed the outcome of the appeal’s case management via e-review earlier today, which was fixed following the revelation that the prosecution has not filed its appeal petition, despite them having filed the notice of appeal on March 9.
“The audit tampering case appeal is set for a physical mention before the panel of the Court of Appeal on Sept 12,” Alaistair told Malaysiakini, adding that the open-court mention is fixed due to the non-filing of the appeal petition.
When contacted, counsel N Sivananthan - who acted for Arul Kanda - confirmed the mention date of the appellate court, adding that the prosecution as of now has yet to file any petition of appeal.
Malaysiakini is attempting to reach out to the prosecution over the matter.
Under normal judicial practice, an appeal initiated by a notice of appeal but not followed up by a petition of appeal (to be filed within 10 days of the Kuala Lumpur High Court having provided the records for appeal) is at risk of lapsing or being struck out.
However, it should be noted that the prosecution also has the option of filing an application for an extension to file the appeal petition.
On Monday, Najib's legal team contended that the prosecution’s appeal in the 1MDB audit case against the former prime minister is defective due to the non-filing of the appeal petition.
Earlier on March 3, the Kuala Lumpur High Court acquitted the duo of abuse of power involving the audit of the sovereign wealth fund.
Trial judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove a prima facie (answerable) case against the duo.
Najib was charged with using his position as then-prime minister to order amendments to 1MDB’s final audit report before it was presented to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in 2016 to prevent any action against him.
Arul Kanda was charged with abetting Najib in making the amendments.
The former Pekan MP is serving a 12-year jail sentence over a separate corruption case involving RM42 million of funds from SRC International.
Najib also has three other pending criminal court cases, namely the RM2.28 billion 1MDB corruption trial, a separate SRC International money laundering case involving RM27 million, and an RM6.6 billion International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) criminal breach of trust case. - Mkini
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