KOTA KINABALU – Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has again denied knowledge of the RM42 million deposited into his personal bank account, despite being found guilty of misappropriating the sum belonging to SRC International Sdn Bhd.
Najib was convicted of seven charges at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on July 28 of abusing money belonging to SRC International, a government-linked company, and was sentenced to 12 years’ prison and fined RM210 million. He is appealing the decision.
Speaking to The Vibes, the former prime minister and Pekan MP was dismayed that aside from his defence, his sumpah laknat or oath citing the Islamic principle on truthfulness was disregarded by the court during mitigation that day.
“As you know, I have… I cited the Islamic principle. I swore in the name of Allah that I did not receive… I did not ask for the RM42 million nor was the RM42 million offered to me.
“I did that during the trial, I did it during the mitigation plea. There are many other things that we will argue when the time comes but suffice for me to say that, there are many, many arguments we have put forth.
“In our defence, that was not taken into consideration by the judge but we will argue this when the time comes,” said Najib, who is the first former prime minister to be convicted for corruption.
Najib said judgment is subject to defence on their side and argues whether the judgement was concedence with the principle of the evidence adduced as well as the principles of the criminal law.
When pressed on whether he received a fair trial, Najib said he had to be careful in making comments about his case.
“Well, I have to be careful because this could be cited as contempt of court, you see. But, it has to be said that this is only the first stage, and it is a three-stage system that we have adopted in Malaysia.
“In other words, this is the decision of one judge, you still have the Court of Appeal and Federal Court.”
High court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali said in his written judgment that Najib did not express any remorse when the latter was found guilty.
“His conviction of all seven charges concerning abuse of position, criminal breach of trust and money laundering constitutes nothing less than an absolute betrayal of that trust,” Nazlan had said.
Najib’s defence team is currently asking the Court of Appeal to grant more time to submit a petition which was initially fixed to be filed by next Monday.
Court procedures dictate that a petition of appeal is required to be filed within 10 days from when the record of appeal, which consists of the grounds of judgment from the high court judge, is ready.
In Najib’s case, his defence team is requesting for an extension to file the petition from 10 days to 30 days. – The Vibes, September 24, 2020
Datuk Seri Najib Razak was interviewed by Terence Fernandez, Norman Goh and Azril Annuar.
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