Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 23): Former premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak on Tuesday applied to the Court of Appeal to postpone the delivery of its decision on his appeal to set aside his conviction and sentence in the SRC International Sdn Bhd case.

Earlier in the day, the Office of the Chief Registrar, Federal Court of Malaysia, said in a statement that Dec 8 had been fixed to deliver the decision on Najib's appeal against the High Court's verdict to find him guilty of misappropriating RM42 million of SRC funds and sentence him to 12 years in jail and a fine of RM210 million.

The reason cited by Najib in seeking to adjourn the Dec 8 date is that he would be under quarantine for seven days when he returns from Singapore on Dec 6 after visiting his daughter Nooryana Najwa, who would be delivering her second child.

In addition, his lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah also has his RM9.5 million income tax and money laundering trial before Justice Datuk Muhammad Jamil Hussin at the High Court, Najib said in his application filed through the law firm Shafee & Co.

Shafee when contacted by The Edge confirmed that Najib has sought an adjournment of the date fixed by the court to deliver its decision on his appeal.

Najib in his application suggested that Court of Appeal announce its decision in the following week, between Dec 13 and 17.

However, the dates of Dec 13 to 17 will clash with the hearing dates of the ongoing 1MDB-Tanore trial presided by Justice Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah, and hence a copy of the application has been forwarded to the judge.

Previously, Najib had requested Justice Sequerah to adjust the hearing dates to enable him to lead the Barisan Nasional (BN) campaign in the Melaka state election. The election on Nov 20 saw BN win 21 out of 28 seats in the state legislative assembly.

Najib, who had also applied to the court for a return of his passport, left for Singapore on Nov 22 to be with Nooryana.

If the former premier succeeds in overturning his conviction in the SRC case, he will be able to contest in the next general election. He has been the BN member of parliament (MP) for Pekan since 1976 after succeeeding his late father Tun Abdul Razak Hussein.

If the conviction is upheld, he will then be out of running — at least pending his next appeal — as a person is disqualified from being a MP under Article 48 of the Federal Constitution if he is fined RM2,000 or more, or is sentenced to more than a year's jail.

The announcement on Tuesday of the decision date came slightly over six months after the Court of Appeal bench led by Justice Datuk Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil reserved judgement in delivering its decision after hearing submissions from both the defence and prosecution that ended on May 18.

Edited ByKathy Fong & S Kanagaraju
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