KUALA LUMPUR, June 12 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak is now seeking to have Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram disqualified from leading the prosecution of his trial over alleged tampering of the Auditor-General’s audit report on 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), his lawyer confirmed today.
Najib’s lead defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said the application was filed today, adding that affidavits in support were also filed by Najib and former attorney general Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali.
“Yes, we filed an application today to disqualify Sri Ram from being the DPP in the case. The application is supported by two affidavits: YB Dato Seri Najib and Tan Sri Apandi. We served the application on the AGC today in the early afternoon,” he told Malay Mail in a WhatsApp text message.
When asked for the grounds of Najib’s application, Shafee said: “Same grounds as recently exposed by TS Apandi.”
When asked to confirm if he was referring to a June 10 Facebook post by Apandi, Shafee replied in the affirmative.
On June 10, Apandi posted a Facebook post containing allegations regarding a purported January 2018 meeting with Sri Ram and claims that Sri Ram had then allegedly conveyed a message for Najib to be arrested, but Sri Ram has reportedly declined comment.
Apandi was the attorney-general from July 2015 to May 2018.
Trial is set to resume on June 15, but Najib’s legal team is expected to ask the High Court to hear Najib’s bid for disqualification of Sri Ram as lead prosecutor first.
“We will insist the court hears our application first as it affects integrity of the trial process,” Shafee replied, when asked if the trial would proceed as scheduled.
Another member of Najib’s defence team who declined to be named confirmed that the application to disqualify Sri Ram from prosecuting in the 1MDB audit trial was “in light of recent revelations” regarding Sri Ram, further confirming that the case will be coming up for case management on June 15 morning.
Najib is facing a joint trial with former 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy, with the latter accused of abetting the former prime minister in the alleged tampering of the 1MDB audit report.
When contacted, Jasmine Cheong who is a lawyer representing Arul Kanda confirmed that her client had not filed any new application in the case.
On December 12, 2018, Najib was charged with one count of abuse of power, an offence which carries a prison sentence of not more than 20 years and a fine of at least five times the bribed amount or RM10,000 or whichever is higher upon conviction.
In this trial, Najib is accused of having misused his positions as prime minister and finance minister to avoid civil or criminal action by ordering amendments to the Auditor-General’s 1MDB audit report before it was finalised and presented to Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, while Arul Kanda is accused of having helped Najib commit the alleged offence.
Their joint trial is being heard before High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan.
