Judge withdraws from ex-AG's appeal in suit against Kit Siang

 

Court of Appeal judge Hanipah Farikullah has withdrawn from former attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali's appeal in his 1MDB-linked defamation suit against DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang.

The appellate court judge this morning made the decision following an application by Lim's counsel Sangeet Kaur Deo seeking her recusal.

Sangeet had sought the recusal as Hanipah (above) was the Kuala Lumpur High Court judge who in 2016 had dismissed several legal challenges (judicial review) regarding Apandi's decision to exonerate then-prime minister Najib Abdul Razak over involvement in the 1MDB matter.

Today, the three-person Court of Appeal bench - chaired by Hanipah and also comprising of judges M Gunalan and Azmi Ariffin - was initially set to hear Apandi's appeal over the Kuala Lumpur High Court dismissal of his defamation suit against Lim.

During open-court proceedings, Hanipah said she made the decision after hearing oral submissions from Sangeet as well as Apandi’s counsel M Visvanathan and Rueben Mathiavaranam.

“The subject matter of the judicial review before me at the High Court and this appeal (today) involved two main issues.

“The first issue is the exercise of the power of the AG (Apandi), who is now the appellant in this appeal over Article 145(3) (of the Federal Constitution, which deals with the power of the AG to commence or discontinue criminal court proceedings).

“The second issue was over the exercise of the appellant’s (Apandi) discretionary power on mutual legal assistance (MLA) and also to exonerate then prime minister (Najib).

“As justice must not only be done but seen to be done, I, therefore, recuse myself from this appeal in all fairness and in the interest of justice,” Hanipah said.

Former AG Mohamed Apandi Ali and DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang

Later today during case management, the Court of Appeal has rescheduled Apandi’s appeal hearing on Sept 4.

Defamation suit dismissed

Apandi is appealing against the decision of the Kuala Lumpur High Court on May 23 last year to dismiss his defamation suit over Lim’s article written earlier on May 6, 2019.

The appellant claimed that the article implied, among others, that he was involved in the 1MDB financial scandal, was a person with no morals and integrity, was unethical, and had abused his power when he was attorney-general from July 27, 2015, to June 4, 2018.

In her 100-page judgment cited by online business portal The Edge, civil court judge Azimah Omar ruled that Lim was justified in his statement urging Apandi to answer why he had absolved Najib over the 1MDB affair in 2016.

She also noted that it was strikingly evident that Apandi showed disinterest and indifference to the elementary rule of law and even common sense, as seen by the then AG refusing MLA from the Swiss authorities in relation to the 1MDB probe.

Former finance minister Najib is currently serving a 12-year jail sentence over an RM42 million corruption case linked to SRC International, a former subsidiary of 1MDB that later became fully owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MOF Inc).

Najib is also currently undergoing the RM2.28 billion 1MDB corruption trial before the criminal court in Kuala Lumpur. - Mkini