KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 22): Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has failed in his application to stay the hearing of SRC International Sdn Bhd's US$1.18 billion civil suit against him.
Najib had applied for the stay to await the outcome of a separate Federal Court appeal against his conviction in the seven charges involving RM42 million in the SRC International criminal trial.
In delivering his ruling not to allow Najib's stay application, Justice Datuk Ahmad Fairuz Zainol Abidin told the High Court that a stay "will result in a halt of the entire management of the current suit".
Justice Ahmad Fairuz was of the view that the outcomes of the Federal Court appeal and the subsequent planned applications by Najib's counsel "are purely speculative in nature".
"Nevertheless, whatever outcomes the appeal and the applications would have, would not bar the defendant from making amendments to the appeal.
"The disclosure of the defence will not prejudice the defendants as to a large extent, the defence has been disclosed in the criminal trial," Justice Ahmad Fairuz said during the court session, which was held virtually.
Similarly, Justice Ahmad Fairuz decided to turn down the stay application of the current proceedings until the conclusion of Najib's separate criminal trial, involving three money laundering charges across RM27 million in SRC International "given the indefinite timeline" of the trial's progress.
The management of the suit must continue and the filing of the defence is critical to ensure that the suit progresses efficiently, he said.
Meanwhile, Justice Ahmad Fairuz allowed Najib a third extension to file his defence in the suit for another 40 days upon request by Najib's counsel Harvinderjit Singh.
Harvinderjit requested an additional 10 days from the 30-day extension given by the judge, on grounds that the defendant's counsel would be heading to England to brief the Queen's Counsel on Najib's upcoming Federal Court appeal hearing.
The High Court set the next case management date for Thursday (Feb 24) to allocate the trial time moving forward, and another case management date for April 1.
SRC, which was represented by counsel Datuk DP Naban in the hearing, is seeking declaration from the court that Najib is liable to account for the company's losses of US$1.18 billion due to their breach of duties and trust.
The amount is said to be from Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (Diperbadankan)'s RM4 billion loans that were given to SRC between 2011 and 2012, which were channelled overseas and unrecovered to date.
Former SRC managing director Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil has also been named as a defendant in the suit. Last November, the High Court entered a judgment in default against Nik Faisal for his non-appearance after the suit was filed. A judgment in default can be entered if the person named had failed to respond in a suit filed against him or her. Nik Faisal remains at large and he was last known to be in Indonesia.
The company had previously dropped other defendants from the civil suit, including its former chairman Tan Sri Ismee Ismail, former directors Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, Datuk Suboh Md Yasin, Datuk Mohammed Azhar Osman Khairuddin and Datuk Che Abdullah @ Rashidi Che Omar.