Najib among 41 respondents in 1MDB forfeiture suit against Pekan Umno
Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak has been included among 41 respondents in the MACC’s RM700,000 1MDB-related forfeiture suit against Pekan Umno.
The Pekan MP and Pekan Umno chief is listed as the fourth respondent in the Notice of Motion, with Pekan Umno as the first respondent.
Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak has been included among 41 respondents in the MACC’s RM700,000 1MDB-related forfeiture suit against Pekan Umno.
The Pekan MP and Pekan Umno chief is listed as the fourth respondent in the Notice of Motion, with Pekan Umno as the first respondent.
They were named with 39 others, including individuals such as SY Abdullah Sy Mohamad and Saodi Mahussin.
The amended Notice of Motion was filed on Sept 4, following Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali’s ruling on Aug 30 for the prosecution to do so.
The earlier Notice of Motion only listed Pekan Umno as the sole respondent in the suit and not the Umno division’s office bearers, who included Najib.
During the open proceedings before Justice Nazlan today, MACC deputy public prosecutor Allan Suman Pillai informed the court that the listing of the 41 respondents was in compliance with the Aug 30 ruling.
“We have complied with the court order on Aug 30, which is to name the office bearers in this application,” Pillai said.
Out of the 40 individual office bearers, only Najib and nine others were not present in court.
In the same proceeding, Justice Nazlan fixed Nov 15 for third parties to come to court and stake their claim in the RM700,000, which is the subject matter of the forfeiture legal action.
The judge set the date after he allowed the prosecution’s application to gazette a third party notice under Section 61 (2) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act.
Earlier, the counsel for Pekan Umno, M Reza Hassan, sought for the court to first hear their application to stay the entire proceedings, before hearing or allowing the prosecution’s third party notice application.
Reza said the stay application was against the same court’s ruling on Aug 30, which dismissed their appeal to strike out the entire forfeiture suit on grounds that Pekan Umno’s office bearers were not initially named in the legal action.
Pillai objected to this and said that any gazetting of the third party notice would only be two months from today and would not impinge on Pekan Umno’s appeal to the Court of Appeal.
“In regard to the stay bid by Pekan Umno, we object as we can proceed with the case pending disposal of the appeal.
“The third-party notice is two months from now. We do not see the harm there. They can always get another mention date after any of the third parties come to court on Nov 15," Pillai said.
“If we wait for the disposal of the appeal at the Court of Appeal, we do not know how long it would take as the matter may even proceed to the Federal Court. So it is better to dispense with the third party notice first,” he added.
Reza then countered that there was no need to rush to gazette third party notice in this matter because it has been nearly a year since Pekan Umno’s monies were seized by the authorities.
“Waiting a few more months for the appeal be disposed of in the Court of Appeal is negligible.
"The worst thing that could happen is that if the third party notice is allowed now and later the Court of Appeal decides otherwise (in favour of Pekan Umno), then my client would be prejudiced,” Reza said.
Justice Nazlan also fixed Oct 3 to hear Pekan Umno’s application to stay the entire proceedings pending disposal of their appeal at the Court of Appeal.
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