PUTRAJAYA, Jan 19 — The Federal Court has dismissed Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s legal team’s request to recuse a Court of Appeal judge being co-opted to sit on a five-member Federal Court bench hearing the former prime minister’s bid to have his SRC International conviction and sentence upheld by the apex court reviewed.

At the onset of today’s hearing earlier, Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah had raised a preliminary objection against Court of Appeal judge Datuk Abu Bakar Jais inclusion in the Federal Court hearing.

Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Datuk Abdul Rahman Sebli, who led the five-member panel, said the bench was not persuaded by the defence’s argument since the Federal Constitution clearly outlined the chief justice’s authority in the selection of a Court of Appeal judge to sit on the Federal Court.

"We are not persuaded that Justice Abu Bakar Jais should recuse himself from hearing this review application.

"From our view, the law is clear as the chief justice is vested with discretionary power to empanel a Court of Appeal judge to sit in a Federal Court hearing pursuant to Article 122 of the Federal Constitution.

"For the same reason, we reject the argument that Justice Abu Bakar Jais should not even be involved in the hearing of the review.

"The preliminary objection is dismissed,” Abdul Rahman said in delivering the bench’s decision following a two-hour lunch break.

Article 122(2) states that a judge of the Court of Appeal other than the President of the Court of Appeal may sit as a judge of the Federal Court where the Chief Justice considers that the interests of justice so require, and the judge shall be nominated for the purpose — as occasion requires — by the Chief Justice.

Apart from Abu Bakar and Abdul Rahman, Federal Court judges Datuk Vernon Ong Lam Kiat, Datuk Rhodzariah Bujang and Datuk Nordin Hassan formed the remaining judges on the bench.

Following the brief decision, the court then ordered for the defence to resume their submission on their review application.

Following his incarceration, Najib had since sought to challenge the Federal Court’s five-member bench’s August 2022 unanimous decision in affirming his conviction, sentence and fine meted out by the High Court for the misappropriation of RM42 million of SRC International Sdn Bhd fund.

On July 28, 2020, Justice Datuk Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali found him guilty of seven charges — three criminal breach of trust charges, three money-laundering charges and one abuse of power charge at the High Court.

Mohd Nazlan, who is now a Court of Appeal judge, had sentenced Najib to 12 years in jail and fined him RM210 million in default five years imprisonment and his decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal on Dec 8, 2021.

The Federal Court has dismissed Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s legal team’s request to recuse a Court of Appeal judge being co-opted to sit on a five-member Federal Court bench