A Shah Alam Sessions Court judge today recused herself from hearing the case of Pandan MP and PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli who has been charged under the Banking and Financial Institutions Act (Bafia) 1984.

This despite no application before Judge Rozina Ayob for her to recuse herself from either the prosecution or the defence.

She, however, explained that she was related National Feedlot Corporation Sdn Bhd chairperson Mohamad Salleh Ismail through her father's side.

The matter was first brought up by NFC's Salleh ( photo ) in a public statement on May 5 calling for Rozina to be replaced on grounds that she is related to another PKR leader.

NFC said Rozina had in 2013  recused  herself from hearing PKR Youth chief Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad's case as their families were related.

In the same vein, Salleh said that since Nik Nazmi reports to Rafizi who is his party superior, Rozina should likewise recuse herself from hearing Rafizi's case.

“On the premise of this relationship, the attorney-general and the deputy public prosecutor for the Rafizi Ramli's Bafia case should be alerted to file a recusal because of a possible conflict of interest or lack of impartiality.

Following this, Rafizi's counsel N Surendran raised that matter in court and Rozina had fixed today to hear Rafizi's application to refer the constitutionality of the law to the High Court.

Surprising turn

However in court today, Rozina asked both parties whether Salleh would be testifying in the case to which the DPP Mohd Haziq Dhiyauddin Razali replied that he was scheduled as the 13th witness.

She then asked both parties if they would be comfortable if the case was continued to heard before her as: “I got to know that I am related to Salleh from my father's side.”

In a surprising turn of events after calling for a short recess, Rozina decided to recuse herself despite no applications for her to do so.

She said that as Salleh was also her relative,  this was a reason for her to recuse herself despite no objection from the prosecution and defence.

The court then fixed May 22 for case mention before another judge and ordered the case to remain at status quo.

Rafizi and former Public Bank officer Johari Mohammad, are jointly charged in with violating the Bafia regulations by publicly disclosing assets of third-party bank accounts.

Rafizi and Johari wanted to challenge the constitutionality of the Bafia charge as they claim the relevant section under which they are charged had been repealed two years ago.