Nazlan's case is under judiciary’s authority, Azalina reiterates

Despite the MACC investigation against judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman Said reaffirmed the government’s position that the matter is under the judiciary’s authority.

“As I have emphasised before in Dewan Rakyat, anything to do with this matter is under the jurisdiction of the judiciary.

“The government always respects and continues to adhere to the doctrine of separation of powers,” she said in a statement tonight.

This is in line with Clauses 3 and 3A under Article 125 of the Federal Constitution, she said.

Her statement came after her letter to former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak’s lawyers was leaked into the public domain.

In the letter dated March 20, Azalina told Muhammad Shafee Abdullah that the answer to his questions regarding the MACC investigation on Nazlan (above) was in the affirmative.

Nazlan was the High Court judge in 2020 who convicted Najib and sentenced him to 12 years in prison and RM210 million for corruption, abuse of power, and money laundering in relation to the SRC International case.

The ruling has since been upheld at the Court of Appeal and Federal Court.

According to sources with knowledge of the matter, Shafee had written to Azalina asking her to confirm whether or not MACC had found Nazlan to be in a conflict of interest when presiding over the SRC International case.

He also wanted to know if MACC found Nazlan had violated the Judges' Code of Ethics.

Responding to the leak, Azalina said she was merely discharging her duties based on the information available to her.

“My reply to the letter from Shafee & Co is in line with my reply to the Dewan Rakyat along with facts known to me on this issue, in discharging my responsibilities as a member of the administration to the Parliament.

“I have also asked Shafee & Co to make an official request to the MACC if they wish to obtain the findings of MACC’s investigation on this matter,” she said.

Azalina refers to her parliamentary reply on Feb 23, where she told the parliament that the MACC had submitted its findings two days earlier to Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat.

At the time, however, she said she was merely informed that the report had been submitted with no other information regarding the investigation.

According to her letter to Shafee, she only received MACC’s report on March 7.

Previously, Najib's daughter Nooryana Najwa also posted an excerpt of a purported MACC letter to the chief justice, stating that the commission found Nazlan had violated the Judge's Code of Ethics.

A seven-person bench led by Tengku Maimun ruled that the investigation did not follow protocol.

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