Najib's challenge against prosecutor's appointment dismissed
The Kuala Lumpur High Court has dismissed a challenge filed by former premier Najib Abdul Razak against the appointment of Sulaiman Abdullah as the lead prosecutor against him.
This is for Najib’s seven charges of criminal breach of trust and abuse of power involving SRC International Sdn Bhd...
The Kuala Lumpur High Court has dismissed a challenge filed by former premier Najib Abdul Razak against the appointment of Sulaiman Abdullah as the lead prosecutor against him.
This is for Najib’s seven charges of criminal breach of trust and abuse of power involving SRC International Sdn Bhd.
Najib had challenged Sulaiman’s appointment and applied for the latter to produce the fiat (mandate) the latter received from Attorney-General Tommy Thomas.
Today, judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali ruled that this was not needed as there was no legal requirement for a fiat to be produced.
Furthermore, he ruled that Thomas had made clear Sulaiman’s appointment in a statement to the media dated Aug 31 this year.
“In this case, the attorney-general had in a media release on Aug 31, made it crystal clear that the public prosecutor had appointed Sulaiman to lead prosecution in this case,” Mohd Nazlan said, adding that the statement had come from the Attorney-General’s Chambers.
While the statement did not constitute a fiat, he stressed that the matter had been sufficiently made public.
Thomas, who had originally been the prosecutor, in this case, had said in the statement that he had exercised his discretion under Section 379 of the Criminal Procedure Code to appoint Sulaiman as his replacement.
In an immediate response, Najib’s lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said he will appeal the decision.
Dressed in a light grey suit, Najib was seated in the accused dock throughout the hearing. His son from his first marriage, Mohd Nizar Najib, was observed to be seated in the public gallery during the first half of the hearing.
'Attempt to delay'
Earlier, Shafee had insisted that Sulaiman (below) present his fiat to the court to prove his legal authority in the case contending that the press release alone did not have legal standing.
He claimed that Sulaiman’s refusal to produce a fiat indicated that the document did not exist.
Shafee also questioned why the fiat had been classified under the Official Secrets Act 1972 (OSA) and if disclosing it would be detrimental to national security.
“Would there be a catastrophe if the OSA was removed (for the fiat)? Why must the OSA be invoked? This is an abuse of the process,” he argued.
In response, Sulaiman (above) argued that the press release was sufficient and accused Shafee of attempting to delay the SRC case.
“This is a frivolous and vexatious attempt in order to delay facing the full weight of the law. (The defence has a) fervent hope that the prosecution will somehow go away,” he said.
He added that the classification of the fiat as a state secret had been done by the government which he had no control over.
Sulaiman said Najib’s application was being used as a “bedrock” to eventually challenge lawyer Gopal Sri Ram’s role as the lead prosecutor in the case involving a slew of 1MDB-related charges against the former PM.
Shafee denied this allegation.
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