Appeals court rejects Najib’s bid to reinstate account mismanagement suit
Najib Abdul Razak failed in his appeal to restore a lawsuit over a bank’s alleged sharing of his account information with wanted businessperson Low Taek Jho.
The Court of Appeal this morning unanimously dismissed the former prime minister’s appeal to reinstate the legal action against former banker Joanna Yu and AmBank.
The three-person bench, chaired by...
Najib Abdul Razak failed in his appeal to restore a lawsuit over a bank’s alleged sharing of his account information with wanted businessperson Low Taek Jho.
The Court of Appeal this morning unanimously dismissed the former prime minister’s appeal to reinstate the legal action against former banker Joanna Yu and AmBank.
The three-person bench, chaired by Yaacob Md Sam with members Hadhariah Syed Ismail and Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim, had fixed today for decision on the appeal by the former finance minister.
On Dec 9, 2019, Najib (above) filed the writ of summons against Yu and the commercial bank for allegedly receiving instructions from and revealing his account information to Low (better known as Jho Low).
He is appealing against the Kuala Lumpur High Court decision on Sept 28, 2020, which allowed an application by Yu and the bank to strike out his lawsuit against them.
High Court (civil action jurisdiction) judge Khadijah Idris then had ruled that Najib’s civil suit was an abuse of the court process as it was instituted as a collateral attack to bolster his defence in the separate SRC International criminal court case against him.
Yu was a prosecution witness in the RM42 million SRC criminal court case, while prosecutors contended that Low acted on the behest of Najib in the monetary transactions linked to the former subsidiary of 1MDB. SRC later became wholly owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MoF Inc).
Former finance minister Najib is currently appealing to the Federal Court to overturn his conviction as well as a 12-year jail term and RM210 million fine, over one count of abuse of power, three counts of criminal breach of trust (CBT) and three counts of money laundering involving RM42 million of funds from SRC.
Suit is not genuinely seeking damages
In relation to the ongoing appeal in the SRC criminal court case, Najib’s defence team contended that he had no knowledge of the wrongdoings and claimed that third parties such as Low were fully responsible for any wrongful monetary transactions.
During today’s online Court of Appeal proceedings conducted via zoom, Yaacob ruled that the criminal charges against Najib could not be attributed to Yu and AmBank.
He said this is because the Attorney-General has unfettered discretion on whether to bring criminal charges against the former prime minister.
Yaacob said the Court of Appeal took judicial notice that in relation to the SRC criminal court case, both the High Court and Court of Appeal had ruled that Najib had knowledge on how his bank account was conducted.
“We agree with the respondents (Yu and Ambank) that the present (Najib’s civil) suit is not genuinely seeking damages, but in reality a collateral attack on what has transpired in the criminal court (SRC case).
“We also agree with the respondents that the administration of justice would become chaotic if after prosecution (in a criminal court case), that declaration of innocence could be obtained in the civil court,” Yaacob said.
“In conclusion, we found no appealable error by the High Court (deciding Najib’s civil suit) in its decision (over Najib’s civil suit regarding his bank account) that warrant the appellate court’s intervention.
“There is no merit in this appeal, thus we dismiss the appeal,” Yaacob ruled.
The Court of Appeal then ordered Najib to pay costs of RM35,000 and RM40,000 to Yu and AmBank, respectively.
Najib’s counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah then informed the bench that they have instructions to appeal to the Federal Court over today’s decision.
Counsels Gurdial Singh Nijar and Yoong Sin Min represented Yu and AmBank, respectively.
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