(April 22): The National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) said Rafizi Ramli’s bid to challenge the constitutionality of the repealed Banking and Financial Institutions Act (Bafia) is a delay tactic by the PKR secretary-general to avoid facing trial for allegedly leaking confidential bank details linked to NFC.

NFC chairman Datuk Seri Dr Mohamad Salleh Ismail said the Pandan MP's application was futile, pointless and an attempt to avoid conviction and disqualification as an MP.

“This application to challenge Bafia is actually an attempt by Rafizi to delay the trial of the charges against him and Public Bank Berhad clerk Johari Mohamad and, thus by extension, delaying and denying NFCorp and me, our entitlement to justice and punishment on the very people who had wronged NFCorp and me.

“I am sure that he is certainly afraid to face the charges against him in view that he clearly lied, distorted and misrepresented confidential banking information by exposing such and breaking banking laws. And he knows that he is certainly guilty of such and he is not a whistleblower.

“I believe that if he is convicted, he would be disqualified as a member of parliament and that is something he is trying to avoid and delay,” he said in a statement today.

Salleh, who is the husband of former minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, said the High Court, Court of Appeal and Federal Court had unanimously ruled that the charges against Rafizi under Bafia are not mala fide, oppressive or politically motivated.

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

Rafizi on Monday filed an application to challenge the constitutionality of the repealed Act.

His lawyer, N. Surendran said they will be requesting the Sessions Court judge to refer three constitutional questions to the High Court, which violated Rafizi's right under Articles 5 and 8 of the supreme law of the land.

The questions are whether:

* an accused person could remain silent during investigation to prevent being incriminated;

* whether an accused person can be charged under Bafia which had been repealed and replaced with another legislation; and

* whether Bafia is unconstitutional as the prosecution need not prove intention, a key ingredient in a criminal trial.

Rafizi was charged in August 2012 with revealing four Public Bank customer-profile documents on the balance summaries of the NFCorp, 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 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.

The case is scheduled to be heard next week.

In a separate legal suit in Kuala Lumpur High Court, NFCorp and its chairman is suing Rafizi for wrongful allegations about the same confidential banking information, made against NFCorp, its companies and its chairman to the detriment of their businesses.

The suit hearing is scheduled for October 2015. – The Malaysian Insider