Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 6): There is a new twist to the bid for Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah to remove Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram from prosecuting the former Prime Minister in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB)-Tanore case.

The Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) intends to challenge the decision by the Court of Appeal that granted leave to Najib and Shafee to start a judicial review application to remove Sri Ram, a former federal court judge, from the eight-member prosecution team.

Lawyer Farhan Shafee, who appeared for Najib and Shafee, told reporters that federal counsel Aisyaf Falina Abdullah, who acted on behalf of Sri Ram and the Government, had indicated to the High Court that the AGC will appeal against the leave decision.

The case was called up for case management today, before High Court Judge Datuk Seri Mariana Yahya.

Farhan, however, revealed that the High Court today has set Oct 25 to hear the judicial review application filed by his clients.

“The leave application to appeal has not been filed before the Federal Court, neither is there a stay of proceedings on this matter.

“So, as far as this court is concerned, this case will proceed,” Farhan said.

Najib and Shafee were granted leave to commence the judicial review application by the Court of Appeal on Aug 26 — two days before the 1MDB-Tanore trial started.

Shafee has warned that should Sri Ram be disqualified following this application, the court can order a retrial or an acquittal of Najib in the present 1MDB-Tanore trial.

This follows the present trial being annulled following the disqualification.

Najib is facing four charges of abuse of power and 21 charges of money laundering involving RM2.28 billion of 1MDB funds.

The case is also referred to as the Tanore case, as the transfer to the former premier's account was allegedly carried out by Low Taek Jho in Tanore Finance, a company controlled by the fugitive businessman.

It was reported on Feb 20 that then High Court judge Datuk Azizah Nawawi refused to grant leave due to the duplicity of another application filed by Najib and Shafee. Azizah was elevated as a Court of Appeal Judge on Aug 8, 2019.

Following Azizah's refusal to grant leave, Najib and Shafee appealed to the Court of Appeal.

On Aug 26, a three-member bench led by Justice Datuk Hasnah Mohammed Hashim ruled that there are merits in Najib and Shafee's appeal and granted leave for the case to be heard on its full merits before another judge.

Besides the judicial review application which will now be heard on its full merits, following the appellate court’s decision, the former premier had also filed a separate criminal application to disqualify Sri Ram from prosecuting them.

This application was dismissed by High Court Judge Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah and the decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal.

On Aug 7, a seven-member Federal Court bench dismissed Najib’s appeal to disqualify Sri Ram but ordered the prosecution to give the court and the defence Sri Ram’s appointment letter by Attorney General Tommy Thomas dated Aug 31 last year. The letter was previously classified under the Official Secrets Act 1972.

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