KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 17 — The defence team representing former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak will file an appeal application to the Federal court to adduce new evidence in his SRC International trial.

Najib’s lead defence lawyer, Tan Sri Shafee Abdullah said this includes "suppressed” evidence that recently came to their attention.

Shafee also stated that they are appealing the decision by the Court of Appeal that has rejected their application to introduce new evidence in the trial on December 7.

"We will write to the Federal Court to hear the first appeal, which is the appeal to introduce new evidence.

"We also have information that we received that there might be more evidence that was supposedly suppressed and not informed to us by any parties such as the prosecution or the MACC and will also file in an application to introduce this new evidence,” he said referring to Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.

However, Shafee did say that they are in the process of verifying all the information they received to ensure its validity to be used in the appeal.

On December 8, Najib failed in his appeal at the Court of Appeal, where he was seeking to overturn the High Court’s July 28, 2020 decision which found him guilty of all seven charges relating to SRC’s RM42 million.

The High Court previously sentenced Najib to 10 years’ jail for each of six charges (three counts each of criminal breach of trust and money laundering), as well as 12 years’ jail and a RM210 million fine with an additional five years’ jail if the fine is not paid for the abuse of position charge.

The High Court had ruled that Najib’s prison sentences would run concurrently or at the same time, which would mean a maximum imprisonment of 12 years for Najib.

Prior to the December 8 ruling, Najib had applied to the Court of Appeal to allow new evidence to be included in his appeal against his conviction, for his SRC International case.

Based on court documents previously sighted by Malay Mail, Najib is applying for the Court of Appeal to allow and to direct for viva voce evidence to be taken from Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief Datuk Seri Azam Baki, or essentially for the anti-corruption chief to be asked to give oral evidence in relation to the SRC case.

Najib is also applying for further oral evidence to be taken from MACC investigating officer Rosli Hussein in the SRC case.