Former Federal Court judge Gopal Sri Ram dies

Veteran lawyer Gopal Sri Ram died at 12.15pm today at the Gleneagles Hospital in Kuala Lumpur.

He was 79 years old. At press time, the cause of death remains unknown.

A deputy public prosecutor to the Attorney-General’s Chambers confirmed his passing to Malaysiakini.

The former Federal Court judge was reportedly undergoing treatment for a lung infection at the hospital last week.

Sri Ram was leading the prosecution against former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak in the latter’s ongoing 1MDB corruption trial.

He was also the lead prosecutor in the RM1.25 billion solar hybrid project involving Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor.

The former judge was appointed to lead the prosecution in these cases by then attorney-general Tommy Thomas in 2018.

Born on Aug 16, 1943, to an assistant commissioner, Sri Ram was a former student at Batu Road School and Victoria Institution.

He was briefly a teacher before leaving the country to read the law in the United Kingdom.

He was then called to the English Bar by Lincoln’s Inn in 1969 and the Malaysian Bar later in 1970.

Sri Ram was the first Court of Appeal judge to be elevated directly from the Bar in 1994 when the Court of Appeal was first set up.

He was sworn in as a Federal Court judge in 2009 and retired from the position the following year.

He returned to private practice not long after.

He famously represented Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim back in 2014 in the latter’s appeal to the Federal Court against his sodomy conviction.

Sri Ram was also criticised for sending former Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng to jail for sedition in 1988.

He is survived by his wife Chandra and two children.

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