PUTRAJAYA (March 15): Lawyers acting on behalf of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak (pictured) argued that he did not get a fair trial at the Court of Appeal (CoA) last year as his bid to adduce fresh oral evidence to overturn his 12-year jail sentence and RM210 million fine in the RM42 million SRC International corruption case was rejected out of hand.
Last December, the CoA in a unanimous decision surmised that Najib's bid to call on Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki and former SRC investigating officer Rosli Hussein to be examined to adduce the fresh evidence was not necessary, as it did not fulfil the criteria as stated in Section 61 of the Courts of Judicature Act (1964).
Citing two cases, namely R v Parks and Murugayah v PP, Justice Datuk Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil said Najib had failed to "cumulatively satisfy" the requirements of the law.
After the CoA dismissed Najib’s fresh evidence bid, the three-man bench quashed his appeal against the High Court’s guilty verdict against him.
Najib is now appealing the CoA’s decision at the Federal Court. Before the appeal proper can commence, Najib is seeking to have the previously mentioned evidence adduced. Meanwhile, he is out on a RM2 million bail until his appeal is disposed of.
At the apex court's hearing to adduce the said evidence on Tuesday (March 15), Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah told a five-member judicial bench that the CoA did not give the ex-PM fair hearing last year to adduce this fresh evidence because the CoA bench — comprising Justices Abdul Karim, Datuk Has Zanah Mehat and Datuk Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera — had predetermined the evidence application.
Shafee also claimed he was not given the chance to present his submissions properly as the three- man bench had denied his request to postpone the hearing despite being in quarantine at the time for being a close contact with a Covid-19 positive patient. He had asked for a 10-day adjournment for the application to adduce evidence.
Instead, he was ordered to carry on with the application via Zoom. As such, Shafee contended that he could not present his submissions properly as he did not have documents and a proper computer with him when he was self-isolating at home.
“The court ought to have been more sympathetic. They delayed the verdict for seven months. What is the urgency that they could not adjourn it for 10 more days?," Shafee asked the Federal Court bench, which was led by Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat. The other members of the bench were: Court of Appeal President Justice Rohana Yusuf, Chief Judge of Malaya Justice Azahar Mohamed, Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Justice Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim, and Federal Court Judge Justice Mohd Zawawi Salleh.
“We were not treated fairly, we never got the light of day as they shut their minds,” he said of the CoA bench.
The new evidence has to do with an MACC statement on Nov 19 last year about funds forfeited from the company of Datuk Dr Tawfiq Ayman in Singapore. Tawfiq is the husband of former Bank Negara Malaysia governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz. The funds were allegedly from fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low.
The funds, totalling US$15.4 million (RM64.8 million) recovered from Cutting Edge Industries Ltd (CEIL) owned by Tawfiq and another person, were recently returned to the MACC from the island republic.
Najib said the evidence was not available during his SRC trial, during which a total of 18 defence witnesses testified, including the ex-premier.
"Tawfiq and his two sons signed a statutory declaration to state that they were the beneficial owners of CEIL's account where the US$15.4 million was repatriated and consented to the Singapore Commercial Affairs Department making an application for it to be transferred to 1Malaysia Development Bhd's (1MDB) account," Najib's affidavit to adduce the new evidence stated.
The funds were said to be from Iron Rhapsody Ltd, a company based in the British Virgin Islands that was operated by Tawfiq and one of his sons.
According to Najib's affidavit, Iron Rhapsody received US$16.219 million between 2008 and 2009 from companies owned by Jho Low as a result of 1MDB's Islamic Medium Term Notes of RM5 billion that were flipped in 2009.
Shafee’s co-counsel Harvinderjit Singh also told the apex court that the prosecution in the case had failed to inform the High Court of these developments or give them the relevant documents.
“The MACC and the prosecution knew and/or ought to have known of the above matters but nonetheless sought to actively conceal the same from the Appellant (Najib) by failing to make full disclosure of the same to the Appellant and/or taking positions inconsistent there with during proceedings before the High Court,” Harvinderjit said.
He said they could not bring this up at the High Court stage of the trial as this information was not released to them at the time.