Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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With this decision — unanimously arrived at by a three-member bench — the apex court will not stop the High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan from delivering his decision on Jan 30 next year on whether to call Najib to enter his defence or acquit him with regard to the 1MDB audit tampering charge.

PUTRAJAYA (Dec 7): The Federal Court had on Wednesday (Dec 7) dismissed Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s appeal to disqualify senior Deputy Public Prosecutor Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram from prosecuting him in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) audit trials.

With this decision — unanimously arrived at by a three-member bench — the apex court will not stop the High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan from delivering his decision on Jan 30 next year on whether to call Najib to enter his defence or acquit him with regard to the 1MDB audit tampering charge.

Najib is facing an abuse of power charge in the case, while former 1MDB president Arul Kanda Kandasamy has been charged with abetting him, in ordering the final audit report prepared by the National Audit Department for the Public Accounts Committee in 2016 to be altered.

Najib’s application to disqualify Sri Ram follows former Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali’s Facebook posting in 2020, which alleged that Sri Ram had approached him in January 2018 while he was AG, to ask him to arrest Najib.

This led to Najib filing the application to remove Sri Ram, as his defence — led by Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah — contended that Sri Ram, as a former Federal Court judge who should know better, was acting in a real danger of bias when prosecuting him in the case.

Sri Ram, who appeared for the prosecution along with deputy public prosecutors Ahmad Akram Gharib, Mustafa P Kunyalam and S Deepa, argued that the appeal should be dismissed as it is academic, when the High Court is already prepared to deliver its decision on Jan 30.

Federal Court judge Datuk Vernon Ong Lam Kiat, who delivered the ruling late on Wednesday afternoon, said there was no error of law which warrants an appellate intervention.

“The decision of the High Court and the Court of Appeal is affirmed and the appeal (by Najib) is dismissed,” he said.

Sitting with Ong were Federal Court judges Datuk Zabariah Mohd Yusof and Datuk Seri Hasnah Mohamed Hashim.

According to the Federal Court in its 15-minute oral judgement, there is no evidence to show that Sri Ram participated in the investigation process and carried out investigations in cases involving 1MDB — a point which both the High Court and the Court of Appeal (COA) agreed on.

The Federal Court also agreed with both lower courts that there is no evidence of real danger of bias on the part of Sri Ram being appointed as a senior DPP in the case. “We (the bench) are of the view that the bias and non-objectivity (of Sri Ram) had not been made out in this appeal,” Ong said.

As to the facts and circumstances regarding the affidavits filed by Apandi to support Najib’s application, and the ones filed by Sri Ram, the High Court and COA were entitled to accept the version given by Sri Ram, the apex court ruled.

The apex court also ruled that any criminal court has the inherent jurisdiction to disqualify a lawyer or a DPP from hearing the case.

In September last year, a three-member COA bench led by appellate judge Datuk Yaacob Md Sam upheld the High Court’s decision and dismissed Najib’s appeal to disqualify Sri Ram from his role as senior DPP in the 1MDB audit trial.

The main grounds of Najib’s application was based on Apandi’s claims about his meeting with Sri Ram at the former AG’s house in January 2018, and his allegation that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had asked Sri Ram to persuade him to arrest Najib.

In the affidavits filed in support of Najib’s application, Apandi asserted that the former judge had a “clear mission of bias” against Najib.

The application was made before High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan, who presides over the 1MDB audit tampering case, though Shafee had indicated that its outcome should apply to three other Najib cases.

The three are: the 1MDB-Tanore trial in which Najib has been charged with four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.28 billion of 1MDB funds; the US$6.6 billion criminal breach of trust case involving the arbitration deal with International Petroleum Investment Company; and the RM27 million SRC International money-laundering case, in which Najib has already been convicted and sentenced to spend 12 years in jail and fined RM210 million.

Zaini, in dismissing Najib’s application in February last year, said the former premier’s claim that Sri Ram was biased against him was “without basis and misplaced”.

“Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram, like any other person, is entitled to have his personal opinion. It remains just that. It would be a different consideration if he had demonstrated his bias when carrying out his duty as a senior public prosecutor. His personal opinion cannot be taken to mean that he would impinge on his duties as a senior public prosecutor,” the judge said.

Read also:
Najib fails in appeal to disqualify Sri Ram from leading prosecution in 1MDB audit report tampering trial 
Court dismisses Najib's bid to recuse Gopal Sri Ram from prosecuting 1MDB-related trials again

Edited ByTan Choe Choe
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