Judge recuses self, Najib's wrongful prosecution appeal deferred

Court of Appeal judge Azizah Nawawi has recused herself from chairing the three-person bench initially set to hear former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak’s appeal to reinstate his wrongful prosecution suit against former attorney-general Tommy Thomas.

Azizah made the decision to withdraw after disclosing to lawyers for Najib and Thomas that her husband was former deputy public prosecutor Nik Suhaimi Nik Sulaiman, who retired from the appellate division of the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) earlier this year.

She disclosed that her husband used to work under Thomas, who was AG from 2018 to 2020.

“I wish to make a disclosure. During the time that the respondent (Thomas) was AG, during that period of time, my husband Nik Suhaimi was in the Attorney-General’s Chambers.

“Do parties have any objection to me doing the matter?” she asked lawyers Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaludin and Alan Adrian Gomez, who represented Najib and Thomas respectively.

Firoz then said he needed to take instructions from Najib, who was sitting in the public gallery of the civil appellate court, looking on while being surrounded by Kajang Prison officers.

(Previously, the Court of Appeal allowed his application to be present during today's initially scheduled hearing of his appeal.)

The court then adjourned for around 10 minutes before resuming and Firoz informed the panel - which also comprised judges See Mee Chun and Lim Chong Fong - that Najib wished for Azizah to withdraw from hearing the appeal.

However, Alan told the panel that there was no need for Azizah to recuse herself because there was no real danger of bias.

The lawyer pointed out a similar situation involving Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, who dismissed Najib’s bid for her to recuse herself from hearing the former prime minister’s appeal to quash his conviction in the RM42 million SRC International corruption case.

Najib is currently serving a 12-year jail sentence, after the Federal Court bench chaired by Tengku Maimun dismissed his appeal against his conviction in the SRC case.

In response, Azizah said that she would still withdraw as her husband was directly under Thomas then.

“I am minded to recuse myself from the case (today) as my husband was directly under then attorney-general Tommy Thomas, and on the basis that this is a public interest matter,” she said.

She then recused herself, with Firoz informing her that Najib’s legal team did not know about her husband’s then role under Thomas and did not come to court today to raise any objection until her sudden disclosure.

The Court of Appeal has set case management of the matter next week to decide on who to constitute a new bench to hear Najib’s appeal.

‘Unconnected political issues’

On Nov 25 last year, Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Ahmad Bache allowed Thomas’ application to strike out Najib’s entire civil action without it being subjected to full trial because the lawsuit was “filled with unconnected political issues”.

He added the civil action also lacked details on the former attorney-general’s alleged involvement in wrongful prosecution.

Najib’s lawsuit centred on Thomas’ alleged wrongful prosecution against him in four criminal cases.

Three of the cases are ongoing: the RM2.28 billion 1MDB corruption case, the RM6.6 billion International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) criminal breach of trust (CBT) case, and the RM27 million SRC International money laundering case.

The fourth one is the 1MDB audit case, for which the High Court in Kuala Lumpur has granted Najib a full acquittal. The prosecution, however, has gone to the Court of Appeal to quash this ruling.

The civil suit, however, is not over the RM42 million SRC International corruption case (a separate criminal case from the RM27 million SRC money-laundering case), for which Najib was not only jailed for 12 years but also fined RM210 million fine in lieu of another five years’ jail time.

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