KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 11 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has had three of his charges at the Sessions Court relating to money laundering transferred to the High Court.
Justice Nazlan Mohd Ghazali allowed the transfer today but told the prosecution led by Attorney General (AG) Tommy Thomas that he must make a separate application for the three new cases together with Najib’s SRC International cases.
“My view as per the usual process the three charges ought to be registered for trial at the High Court. After the Sessions Court it comes up to the High Court and (the application for joint trial) must be registered again at any criminal High Court in Kuala Lumpur.
“If it (the three charges) is not (trialled) in this court then maybe an application can be made for it to be transferred here,” said Nazlan.
Thomas had requested under Section 417 of the Criminal Procedural Code (CPC) to have the three charges first slapped on Najib on January 28 to be tried together with the former premier’s SRC cases as it was related.
However Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Shafee Abdullah had argued saying Section 417 only allows for a transfer to a higher court and not for a joint trial.
At a press conference later, Shafee vowed to contest Thomas’s bid to combine the three charges with the SRC case.
“We will fight tooth and nail on this,” Shafee said.
The AG initially charged Najib with the three offences at the High Court on January 28, but admitted on February 7 that prosecutors erred in filing these at the High Court and withdrew them.
The next day, Najib was charged over the same three offences involving the unlawful receipt of RM47 million via his AmBank account, at the Sessions Court.
