Claiming discovery of trial judge’s previous role in bank, Najib’s lawyer seeks retrial over SRC International case

KUALA LUMPUR, March 15 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s lawyers are hoping to get a retrial of the former prime minister who was convicted of misappropriating RM42 million from SRC International Sdn Bhd.

Najib’s lead defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah reiterated to reporters at the Palace of Justice in Putrajaya today that the defence team only recently learnt that the trial judge in the High Court Datuk Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali had previously held a position in Maybank in 2012 that created a conflict of interest in the trial.

However, Shafee said that this move to seek a retrial is pending a court decision on the defence’s application to add more evidence to the case, which is related to Mohd Nazlan’s former job at Maybank.

“We will be asking for a retrial, because he is the primary judge. If the court agrees, we will ask for a retrial,” he said, referring to Mohd Nazlan.

“But because the trial has gone on for, my god, how many days, and how much time and money has been wasted, there is also a possibility, because this is a blunder of the judiciary, we’ll say you have to acquit — quash the entire charges.

“But these are [the] alternatives. Whether it is significant or not the court will determine,” Shafee added.

Malay Mail was able to get a recording of the news conference.

Yesterday, Shafee said that Mohd Nazlan should have disclosed the latter’s previous job as Maybank’s company secretary and group general counsel, because he would have been in the know about the bank’s dealings with 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and may have formed prejudices regarding the SRC case.

1MDB was previously the parent company of SRC.

Shafee claimed to have discovered Nazlan’s past role just a few days ago, and said Najib’s lawyers will be filing a new application to highlight this to the Federal Court.

In 2012, Maybank had lent RM4.17 billion to 1MDB — via a subsidiary — to help finance the company’s acquisition of independent power producer Tanjong Energy Holdings Sdn Bhd.

In July 2020, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur sentenced Najib to 12 years of jail and a RM210 million fine after he was found guilty of abuse of power and misappropriating RM42 million from SRC.

However, Mohd Nazlan granted Najib a stay of execution on both the jail term and fine.

Since then, Najib has failed an appeal of the case’s verdict at the Court of Appeal, and has brought the matter up to the Federal Court — which has yet to set a date for the hearing.