[UPDATED] Federal Court rejects Najib’s bid to adduce new evidence in SRC trial

PUTRAJAYA – The Federal Court has rejected Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s application to adduce new evidence in his RM42 million SRC International Sdn Bhd corruption case.

Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, who led a five-member bench, said the former prime minister had failed to show the relevance of the new evidence against his charges.

“It is not as if justice Nazlan’s previous role was a secret that his subsequent involvement came as a surprise.

“We also find no nexus of justice Nazlan’s previous employment in the bank and charges against the applicant as to suggest a conflict of interest,” she said when delivering her judgement. 

“Whether Justice Nazlan’s findings are correct, on the evidence on record, is the subject for consideration in the main appeals. 

“Viewed in this light, the entirety of the additional evidence sought to be introduced, is in our view, irrelevant to the charges preferred against the applicant and fails to disclose any conflict of interest on the part of Justice Nazlan.”

The evidence Najib had sought to admit in court was over the purported conflict of interest by then high court judge Datuk Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali in the SRC International trial due to the latter’s previous role in Maybank.

Nazlan was the general counsel and company secretary for the Maybank Group from 2006 to 2015.

The defence had argued that there was a real danger of “bias” due to Nazlan’s supposed involvement in the bank’s RM140 million loan to Putra Perdana Development Sdn Bhd and RM4.17 billion loan to 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

Other members of the bench are Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and the Federal Court’s Datuk Nallini Pathmanathan, Datuk Mary Lim Thiam Suan, and Datuk Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah.

The defence had also sought to submit additional evidence from former 1MDB CEO Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, investigating officer Rosli Hussein and three other Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission officers who recorded statements from Nazlan.

In the June filing, Najib had said Nazlan had failed to disclose his role in his previous job as Maybank’s company secretary and group general counsel in 2012.

Najib’s lead defence counsel at the time, Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, had said there was enough merit for them to seek a retrial as Nazlan could be called as an important witness in the 1MDB proceedings.

However, the prosecution had argued that Najib’s application was a desperate attempt to nullify the trial and Nazlan’s previous role had no conflict of interest, and had been in the public domain even before the trial began in 2019.

On July 28, 2020, Nazlan sentenced Najib to 12 years in jail and fined him RM210 million after he was found guilty of misappropriating RM42 million belonging to SRC International.

Last December 8, the Court of Appeal upheld Najib’s conviction.

Once the hearing for his final appeal has concluded on August 26, the apex court is expected to make a decision a few months later.

If Najib’s conviction is upheld by the Federal Court, he will immediately have to serve his sentence. He would also have exhausted all legal means to appeal in this case.

The only recourse open to the former prime minister would then be to apply for a royal pardon after he has begun serving his sentence. – The Vibes, August 16, 2022