PUTRAJAYA – Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak today began an appeal against his conviction on corruption charges and 12-year jail term linked to the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal.
Najib was found guilty last year on all counts in the first of several trials he is facing related to the looting of the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund.
The 67-year-old, who remains free on bail, and his cronies were accused of stealing billions of dollars from the investment vehicle and spending it on everything from high-end real estate to pricey art.
Today, Najib began his first challenge at the Court of Appeal, declining to comment to reporters as he arrived.
“There is a total breach of fair trial – unheard of,” defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah told the court as proceedings got under way.
“We have a mess, so we have to deal with it.”
Bernama reported a three-member bench led by judge Datuk Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil has dismissed Najib’s application to adjourn the hearing after counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah informed the court it had additional evidence, including those related to the family of former Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) governor Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz.
“We are unanimous in this. There is no sufficient reason to adjourn the hearing. We are disallowing the application for an adjournment,” said Karim, who presided over the appeal with justices Datuk Has Zanah Mehat and Datuk Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera.
“There was a miscarriage of justice,” Shafee told reporters after proceedings wrapped up for the day.
He argued the judge in the original trial did not have sufficient experience in handling criminal cases.
“This alone should make this appeal successful and the court can reverse the (earlier) judgement,” he said.
Earlier, Shafee said they needed at least a one-month adjournment to get some relevant documents from New York and Singapore.
“The documents are linked to 1MDB and also involve allegations against Zeti’s family. We need at least one month to put in additional evidence in our submission. We are seeking for an adjournment of the hearing,” Shafee said.
Meanwhile, Bernama reported deputy public prosecutor Datuk V. Sithambaram objected to the request, saying that the applicant should have made the application before the hearing commenced.
“There is a non-valid ground for them to ask for an adjournment. We pray that there is no more delay and ask the court to proceed with the case,” he said.
Najib had submitted 307 grounds in his petition of appeal on why he should be freed of the charges.
Anger at the plunder played a large part in the shock loss of Najib’s long-ruling coalition at elections in 2018, and he was arrested and hit with dozens of charges following his defeat.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court had, on July 28 last year, sentenced Najib to 12 years’ jail and fined him RM210 million after finding him guilty on seven charges of criminal breach of trust, money laundering and abuse of position involving RM42 million in 1MDB subsidiary SRC International funds.
High court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali had sentenced Najib to 10 years’ jail on each of the three counts of CBT and each of the three counts of money laundering and 12 years’ jail and a RM210 million fine, in default of five years’ jail, in the case of abuse of position.
However, Najib will only serve 12 years in jail as the judge ordered all the jail sentences to run concurrently.
Najib is currently out on RM2 million bail in two sureties pending appeal.
During the appeal, set to run until April 22, Najib’s lawyers will argue he had no knowledge of the transactions into his accounts.
They are seeking to portray him as a victim and blame financier Low Taek Jho – a key figure in the scandal who has been charged in the United States and Malaysia – as the mastermind.
Low, whose current whereabouts are unknown, maintains his innocence.
If he loses the appeal, Najib still has a final chance to challenge the conviction at the top court.
Najib’s conviction came even after his scandal-plagued party returned to power following the collapse of a reformist administration, headed by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, that ousted him at the 2018 polls.
The amounts involved in his first case are small compared with those in his second and most significant trial, which centres on allegations he illicitly obtained more than US$500 million. – AFP, April 5, 2021
