KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 23): The Office of the Chief Registrar of the Federal Court of Malaysia issued a statement on Tuesday (Aug 23) condemning the actions of a local news portal that uploaded a leaked working draft of the apex court's judgement in former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's final appeal of the SRC International Sdn Bhd case.
In a statement, it said news portal Malaysia Today's publication of the leaked draft prior to the delivery of the verdict on Tuesday afternoon was "a deliberate act to affect the operation of the court and the administration of justice".
It also confirmed that the draft published by the news portal was not the final judgement. The draft had also been doctored before it was leaked, it added.
"An internal investigation has already started and a police report has been made. This office stresses that the judiciary will not be disturbed by illegal and irresponsible acts that affect the integrity of the country's judicial system," the statement read.
Prior to the judgement being delivered by the Federal Court at around 4pm and released to the media over an hour later, the leaked working draft judgement was being circulated via social media and messaging services.
In the actual judgement, a five-member bench of the apex court, led by Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, dismissed Najib's final appeal against his graft conviction in the SRC case and upheld the High Court's guilty verdict.
Najib has now been brought to the Kajang prison to serve his 12-year jail term. The Pekan Member of Parliament also has to pay RM210 million as fine.
The High Court in July 2020 found him guilty of one count of power abuse, for which he was sentenced to 12 years in jail and fined RM210 million in lieu of five more years in prison. He was also found guilty of three criminal breach of trust and three money laundering charges involving RM42 million from SRC, for which he was sentenced to 10 years in jail for each of the offences.
However, he will only be spending 12 years behind bars as the court also ordered that the jail sentences run concurrently.