Experienced judge needed to hear Najib's RM42m SRC case, court hears
UPDATED 3.40PM | Najib Abdul Razak’s RM42 million SRC International corruption case is the case of the century, the Court of Appeal heard today.
However, the former prime minister’s legal team submitted that a High Court judge lacking experience in criminal cases was instead brought in to hear the case.
During the hearing of Najib’s related appeal before the Court of Appeal, lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah (above) contended that a judge with necessary criminal case experience is required to hear Najib’s criminal trial.
In July 2018, it was reported...
UPDATED 3.40PM | Najib Abdul Razak’s RM42 million SRC International corruption case is the case of the century, the Court of Appeal heard today.
However, the former prime minister’s legal team submitted that a High Court judge lacking experience in criminal cases was instead brought in to hear the case.
During the hearing of Najib’s related appeal before the Court of Appeal, lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah (above) contended that a judge with necessary criminal case experience is required to hear Najib’s criminal trial.
In July 2018, it was reported that the High Court judge in Kuala Lumpur, Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali, would take over the hearing of Najib’s case from judge Mohd Sofian Abd Razak.
Prior to presiding over the SRC criminal case, Nazlan dealt with civil cases, rather than criminal cases.
Later, effective March 1 this year, Nazlan was transferred back to the civil bench of the High Court.
During proceedings before the three-person Court of Appeal bench today, Shafee argued that the SRC criminal trial should have been heard by a judge experienced in such matters.
Shafee contended that this was necessary in order to lessen mistakes when presiding over the SRC trial.
“This (SRC criminal case) was the case of the century,” Shafee said.
“But Sofian was transferred out, and Nazlan was brought in (to hear the SRC case),” contended the lawyer with decades of experience in legal practice.
The Court of Appeal is hearing Najib’s appeal to quash his conviction and sentencing over seven charges linked to RM42 million of funds from SRC.
On July 28 last year, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur convicted Najib on one count of abuse of power, three counts of criminal breach of trust (CBT), and three counts of money laundering, in relation to RM42 million of funds from SRC.
Judge Nazlan had then sentenced Najib to 12 years in jail and a fine of RM210 million.
However, the court allowed Najib’s defence team application to stay the execution of the sentence, pending the disposal of his appeal.
When met by the media after today’s Court of Appeal proceedings, Shafee explained that he had earlier submitted that cases of complexity and magnitude, such as the RM42 million SRC case, required a very senior judge with wide experience in criminal trials.
The lawyer then referred to multiple past High Court criminal trials where very senior judges presided over, due to the complexity and magnitude of the cases, such as the 1970s criminal trial involving former Selangor menteri besar Harun Idris.
“The question is why in our case (in the High Court), there was a change from experienced criminal court judge Sofian to a judge (Nazlan) where this (SRC case) is the first criminal case he is presiding over,” Shafee said.
He added that handling criminal trials was not something easy that any judge could preside over.
Hearing before the three-person Court of Appeal bench will resume around 9am tomorrow morning.
The bench comprises Court of Appeal judges Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil, Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera, and Has Zanah Mehat.
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