Umno man Khairuddin Abu Hassan today filed for a judical review at the Kuala Lumpur High Court against the attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali, arguing that his appointment was invalid.

This comes after former law minister Zaid Ibrahim filed an application to review Apandi's decision to close two cases involving Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, this week.

In his motion, Khairuddin said Apandi's predecessor Abdul Gani Patail was unlawfully removed, breaching Article 156(6) of the federal constitution.

"Given that the removal of Gani was unlawful, Apandi's appointment as AG cannot be deemed valid," the application read.

In the application filed through his lawyer Haniff Khatri Abdulla, Khairuddin said he sought the review on grounds that Apandi's decision on Jan 26 has gone against the concept of natural justice and was unreasonable and beyond his jurisdiction as provided for under Article 145(3) of the federal constitution.

Among others, it was stated that Apandi had decided there was no need for Malaysia to request for mutual legal assistance from other countries in relation to three investigation papers on Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak opened by the MACC.

This had formed a part of Apandi's arguments in ordering for the investigation papers to be closed

Separately, the former Batu Kawan Umno deputy chief is also applying to set aside any charges against him.

Khairuddin together with lawyer Matthias Chang were charged with sabotaging the economy after he lodged reports against 1MDB with various foreign enforcement agencies.

They were accused of committing the acts between June 28 and Aug 26 last year at the premises of investigating bodies in France, England, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Singapore and face up to 15 years of imprisonment if found guilty.

Independent commission

Speaking to reporters later, Khairuddin said there was a clear conflict of interest with regard to Apandi’s position in making the decision to drop the case against Najib.

“It is public knowledge that (the former AG) Abdul Gani Patail was replaced while he was investigating 1MDB. Najib then named Apandi as Gani’s replacement.

“He (Apandi) should have delegated the decision (involving Najib) to his deputy or at the very least set up an independent commission that comprised former judges,” he said.

Haniff, meanwhile, said that Khairuddin was in the best position to file the judicial review application as he has been directly affected in court by Apandi’s decision.

Asked on the judicial review application filed by former law minister Zaid Ibrahim, Haniff said: “Of course, it is interesting that more parties are coming forward to challenge the decision (by Apandi).”

“We will be viewing the (other) applications (as the cases proceed). The applications are almost similar but not the same,” he said.

Aside from filing the judicial review, Khairuddin yesterday had also lodged a report against Apandi with the MACC for alleged abuse of power .