(May 5): Judge Rozina Ayob should disqualify herself from hearing Rafizi Ramli’s Banking and Financial Institutions Act (BAFIA) case, as she is related to PKR Youth chief Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, National Feedlot Corporation Sdn Bhd (NFCorp) said today.

NFCorp said Rozina had reportedly sought to withdraw herself from Nik Nazmi’s Peaceful Assembly Act court case in 2013 because of their family ties, and said that she should do the same in Rafizi’s case as “Nik Nazmi reports to PKR secretary-general and strategy director Rafizi Ramli”.

“On the premise of this relationship, the Attorney-General and the DPPs for the Rafizi Ramli BAFIA case should be alerted to file a recusal because of a possible conflict of interest or lack of impartiality,” said NFCorp chairman Datuk Dr Mohamad Salleh Ismail in a news release from the company.

“My lawyers have advised that regardless of the decision made by judge Rozina at the end of the case, the whole integrity of the trial would be questioned, especially in the light of the family relationship between her and PKR communications director Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad.”

Rafizi, who is also the Pandan MP, led the exposes on NFCorp, the company that manages the National Feedlot Centre, now a failed cattle-breeding programme in Negri Sembilan that was to have boosted supply of local beef.

The scandal became a high-profile one because Salleh is the husband of former minister and Wanita Umno chief Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.

Rozina, who is the Shah Alam Sessions Court judge, had fixed May 15 to hear submissions whether the High Court could hear and rule on the constitutionality of BAFIA, after she ruled that Putrajaya’s objection to Rafizi’s challenge was frivolous and lacked merit.

Rafizi was charged in August 2012 with revealing four Public Bank customer-profile documents on the balance summaries of NFC, National Meat and Livestock Sdn Bhd, Agroscience Industries Sdn Bhd and Salleh.

He allegedly disclosed the documents to media consultant Yusuf Abdul Alim and to The Star reporter Erle Martin Carvalho at the PKR headquarters in Petaling Jaya on March 7, 2012.

On September 10, 2012, Rafizi filed an application in the High Court to strike out the charge on grounds that it was against public policy to charge him for revealing alleged abuse of public funds.

He then appealed to the Court of Appeal after his application was dismissed by the High Court on November 23, 2012.

On May 23, 2013, the Court of Appeal dismissed Rafizi's appeal to strike out the charge.

“It is pointless for Rafizi to challenge the constitutionality of BAFIA as the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court had unanimously opined and ruled that the charges against Rafizi under BAFIA are not mala fide, oppressive or politically motivated,” said Salleh.

“Hence Rafizi’s application is certainly redundant and res-judicata as the courts had already decided on the said issue before.

“This application to challenge BAFIA is actually an attempt by Rafizi to delay the trial of the charges against him and thus by extension, delaying and denying our entitlement to justice and punishment on the very person who had wronged NFCorp and myself,” he said.

Salleh and NFCorp are suing Rafzi for allegedly lying distorting and misrepresenting the confidential banking information.

NFCorp said Rafizi distributed the Public Bank Berhad accounts to mislead the media by alleging Salleh had defaulted on the servicing of loans for eight KL Eco City office lots with arrears from March 2011 to February 2012.

“The arrears Rafizi alleged were apt to jeopardise a RM71 million government loan deposit placed at the bank,” said NFCorp.

“That has since been proven to be untrue as documents tendered and testified in court showed that no such loans were ever taken by Salleh from Public Bank Berhad for the KL Eco City properties.” – The Malaysian Insider