Najib fails in bid to dismiss Sri Ram
Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak has failed in his attempt to dismiss former Court of Appeal judge Gopal Sri Ram from leading the prosecution in his 1MDB-related cases.
This came after the High Court in Kuala Lumpur today dismissed his application to recuse Sri Ram...
Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak has failed in his attempt to dismiss former Court of Appeal judge Gopal Sri Ram from leading the prosecution in his 1MDB-related cases.
This came after the High Court in Kuala Lumpur today dismissed his application to recuse Sri Ram.
The ruling was delivered by Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah after he read his point-to-point judgments based on submissions from both Najib's lawyers and the prosecution.
Following the ruling, Najib's lead counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah told the court that they were going to file an appeal against the decision with the Court of Appeal.
Shafee told reporters later that he had requested for the court to grant a stay on Najib's 1MDB-related trials pending the appeal to be heard by the higher court.
"On our application to disqualify Sri Ram and also our application to get the letter of authority, under which Sri Ram is appointed, the judge did not agree with us, so he denied our application.
"And we have told the judge we are appealing immediately by 2.45pm or 3pm today, therefore I asked for a stay of the trial which is now fixed in April," he said.
However, according to Shafee, Justice Collin ruled that he did not have to grant the stay yet as the defence still have until April to pursue the appeal.
The lawyer added that he then requested the judge to put it on record, as the defence would have to come back to Justice Collin's court to request for a stay in the event that their appeal is not heard by Najib's trial date.
It was reported that Najib had applied to the court to disqualify Sri Ram, who was appointed by attorney-general Tommy Thomas as the senior deputy public prosecutor to lead the prosecution against him.
Najib was represented by a team of lawyers led by Shafee in the application hearing, while the prosecution was led by deputy public prosecutor Akram Gharib.
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