KUALA LUMPUR, April 21 — Judge Datuk Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali — who heard and convicted former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak over the misappropriation of RM42 million of SRC International Sdn Bhd’s funds — has lodged a police report over false allegations made against him, the judiciary confirmed today.

The judiciary via the Office of the Chief Registrar of the Federal Court was referring to an article by blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin on the blog Malaysia Today, with the article dated April 20 carrying the title “Judge Mohd Nazlan being investigated for unexplained RM1 million in his bank account”.

The judiciary said the judge — who was formerly a High Court judge and was elevated to be a Court of Appeal judge — had said the article had malicious intent and claims that had no basis.

“A police report has been made by YA Dato’ Mohd Nazlan bin Mohd Ghazali, Court of Appeal judge, denying the false, baseless and malicious accusations in that article that were intended to reduce his credibility as a Court of Appeal judge and to interfere with the justice system and the judicial institution.

“This police report was also made so that investigations can be carried out under Section 500 of the Penal Code, Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 and other related legal provisions,” it said in a statement today.

Section 500 provides the penalty of a maximum two-year jail term or fine or both for the offence of criminal defamation.

Section 233 covers the offence of improper use of network facilities or network services including the creating or initiating of the transmission of any comment which is obscene, indecent, false, menacing or offensive with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass another person. This offence is punishable with a maximum RM50,000 fine or a maximum one-year jail term or both if convicted and a further fine of RM1,000 per day for each day the offence is continued after conviction.

“This Office views such accusations and comments seriously and reminds the public that accusations against the judiciary which are intended to interfere with cases that are still in the process of being heard, is a violation of the principle of sub judice.

“This Office also urges for the police to carry out investigations immediately to maintain public confidence towards the country’s judicial institution and to ensure the administration of justice can be well carried out,” it concluded.

Previously on March 14, Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah insisted the judge in the SRC trial should have recused himself, claiming to have only recently discovered Nazlan’s 2012 role as Maybank’s company secretary and group general counsel when the bank issued loans to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

While Shafee claimed to have only just discovered Nazlan’s previous Maybank position, this has been reported in the news since August 2018.

Shafee had described SRC as a wholly-owned subsidiary of 1MDB, but SRC was only under 1MDB’s ownership for several months from August 2011 to February 2012, while the SRC trial also did not involve any Maybank loans to 1MDB and instead involved the misappropriation of RM42 million said to have originated from RM4 billion in loans from the Retirement Fund Incorporated (KWAP) to SRC.

Also on March 14, allegations against Nazlan appeared in two online articles, including on portal MalaysiaNow and the blog Malaysia Today.

The judiciary on March 16 had confirmed lodging a police report against the allegations in the March 14 articles to enable investigations for criminal defamation and legal provisions such as Section 233.

Nazlan was the judge who had heard Najib’s SRC trial at the High Court which had started in April 2019 and who delivered the guilty verdict in July 2020 against Najib. Nazlan was elevated to be a Court of Appeal judge in February 2022.

Following the High Court’s July 2020 decision which found Najib to be guilty over the misappropriation of SRC’s RM42 million, the Court of Appeal’s three-judge panel had on December 8, 2021 also unanimously upheld Najib’s conviction and fine and jail sentencing.

Najib on December 8, 2021 filed an appeal to the Federal Court.

The attacks against Nazlan as the SRC trial judge had started appearing more than one and a half years after his July 2020 verdict that found Najib guilty, or in other words just about three months after the Court of Appeal too upheld the conviction.

No hearing date has been fixed yet for Najib’s actual SRC appeal before the Federal Court, as it is still in the preliminary stages.

Najib’s lawyers also intend to bring in a Queen’s Counsel from the UK to represent him in the SRC appeal. Queen’s Counsel is a term typically referring to leading senior lawyers in the UK who handle more complex cases.