Najib seeks to nullify SRC trial, cites judge’s conflict of interest
His lawyer Mohamed Shafee Abdullah said this comes after they recently discovered that Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali, who was the High Court trial judge in the SRC International case, had several conflicts of interest in the matter.
“The further evidence sought to be...
Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak has filed an application to add further evidence in the Federal Court today, which is intended to seek the nullification of the SRC International Bhd trial at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.
His lawyer Mohamed Shafee Abdullah said this comes after they recently discovered that Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali, who was the High Court trial judge in the SRC International case, had several conflicts of interest in the matter.
“The further evidence sought to be adduced relates to the recent discovery that the trial judge in the SRC case, Nazlan, was in 2006 the general counsel and company secretary for the Maybank Group who had the ultimate responsibility for the management and administration of all legal departments within the entire group,” Shafee said in a press conference at the Kuala Lumpur court complex this evening.
This is relevant, he said, because they have recently discovered that Maybank Investment Bank Bhd was the body that proposed the establishment of SRC International.
Maybank Investment also wholly owns Bina Fikir Sdn Bhd, which was tasked with the research and advisory matter pertaining to the establishment of SRC International, he added.
“The involvement of Maybank through Maybank Investment and Bina Fikir in the setting up of SRC was never brought up by the prosecution at any point of the SRC trial and no witness from Maybank, Maybank Investment and Bina Fikir was called or offered by the prosecution,” Shafee said.
In Nazlan’s position in Maybank Group, he would have been responsible for the overall handling of all legal matters within the group, which would include Maybank Investment and Bina Fikir, said Shafee.
As such, Nazlan would have had some knowledge of the advisory work with SRC matters, he added.
“Nazlan had willfully failed to disclose his role and/or involvement and/or knowledge on Maybank Investment’s role through Bina Fikir in the setting up of SRC,” claimed Shafee.
Potential witness
Similarly, Shafee said Nazlan would have known about the RM140 million loan facility, as it was given by Maybank to Putra Perdana Development (PPD).
“In light of this, Nazlan would have known or have a good suspicion that the RM42 million subject matter of the charges against Najib had never had its source from the RM4 billion Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP) loan as the source was clearly the RM140 million from Maybank undertaken by PPD,” he said.
They have also recently discovered that Nazlan on March 12, 2012, acted as the general counsel and company secretary to Malayan Banking Berhad in the deliberation and decision making of a loan facility of RM4.17 billion to 1MDB for the acquisition of Tanjong Energy, Shafee said.
“The facts adumbrated earlier would conclusively put Nazlan in the position of being a potential witness in the 1MDB case.
“In spite of having personal knowledge of his involvement in the matter of the loan to 1MDB and knowing that Najib was being charged and tried in a different High Court for the 1MDB matter, where he could be a potential witness, Nazlan had failed, neglected or omitted to make a declaration of his personal involvement, knowledge or interest to parties in this case,” he said.
On July 28, 2020, then High Court judge Nazlan had found Najib guilty on one charge of abuse of position as then premier, three counts of criminal breach of trust and three counts of money laundering involving RM42 million of funds from SRC.
On Dec 8 last year, the Court of Appeal dismissed Najib’s appeal to overturn the lower court’s decision.
The Federal Court has since set 10 days in August to hear Najib’s final appeal to quash his conviction and sentence in the SRC International case.
Shafee’s full press statement is as below:
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