KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 14): The Federal Court in Putrajaya is expected to decide tomorrow whether appointed senior Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram (pictured), the Attorney General's Chambers (AGC) and the government can appeal against the appellate court's decision that granted leave to Datuk Seri Najib Razak and lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah to challenge the appointment of Sri Ram as a prosecutor in the case.
This follows five questions of law that had been posed by the AGC and the government over the Court of Appeal's decision on Aug 26 that allow Najib and Shafee — who are each facing trials of their own in respect to 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) cases — to challenge Sri Ram's appointment to conduct the trials.
The 1MDB-Tanore trial involving Najib is already entering its 21st day today, as it began on Aug 28 with Sri Ram, a former Federal Court judge, leading the prosecution team, which comprises 12 other deputy public prosecutors.
The hearing of Najib and Shafee's merits, which have been fixed by the High Court on Oct 25, will only go on if the AGC and government lose the appeal tomorrow.
The five questions of law posed before the apex court as sighted by theedgemarkets.com are:
If leave is granted, then the apex court would fix a hearing date to hear the merits of the appeal based on the questions posed above, which may be refined by the court.
It was previously reported that Najib had sought to remove Sri Ram from leading the prosecution, the application of which trial judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah dismissed.
The application had been upheld by the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court but the apex court ordered the appointment letter be shown to the defence.
At the same time, Najib and Shafee had filed a judicial review application aiming to remove Sri Ram.
It was dismissed by then High Court judge Datuk Azizah Nawawi (who is now with the Court of Appeal) on the grounds it amounts to duplicity of action, but on Aug 26, a three-member bench led by Justice Datuk Hasnah Mohamed Hashim allowed the appeal.
Hence the present appeal by the AGC and the government along with Sri Ram.
Najib, the former premier, is facing four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.28 billion of 1MDB funds.