PUTRAJAYA (Dec 8): Former prime minister and former finance minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak will know the fate of his appeal to set aside the conviction and 12 years jail and RM210 million fine sentence, in relation to SRC International Sdn Bhd, as the Court of Appeal delivers its verdict on Wednesday (Dec 8).
Najib, 68, who is also the Pekan Member of Parliament (MP), is the most senior Cabinet official in the country to be convicted.
Justice Datuk Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil, who led the three-member bench on Tuesday, unanimously dismissed Najib's last-ditch effort to adduce more evidence by examining Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki and SRC investigating officer Rosli Hussein.
Abdul Karim who was sitting with Justices Datuk Has Zanah Mehat and Datuk Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera then decided to deliver the long-awaited decision on Wednesday.
The prosecution is led by ad hoc prosecutor Datuk V Sithambaram, along with Deputy Public Prosecutors Datuk Ishak Mohd Yusoff, Sulaiman Kho Kheng Fueim Budiman Lutfi Mohamed, Donald Joseph Franklin and Ashrof Adrin Kamarul.
Najib and his counsels, led by Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah along with Harvinderjit Singh and Farhan Read, are likely to observe the proceedings via the Zoom application as the team had close contact with a Covid-19-infected person earlier in the week.
They tried to scuttle Tuesday's proceedings by asking a postponement due to the Covid-19 scare, but Najib's bailors were not initially in the court and only arrived later, resulting in Justice Abdul Karim to threaten to issue a warrant of arrest against the former premier if he did not appear by 12.30pm via Zoom.
Both Najib and Shafee then appeared and the bench proceeded with the hearing of Najib's motion to adduce further evidence, which was dismissed.
Najib was found guilty by the High Court on July 28 last year on all seven counts in relation to SRC, namely abuse of power in relation to approving the Retirement Fund (Incorporated)'s (KWAP) RM4 billion loans between 2011 and 2012.
He was also convicted of three counts of criminal breach of trust and another three counts of money laundering of RM42 million deposited into his AmBank accounts and spent between Dec 26, 2014 and Feb 10, 2015.
For these reasons, trial judge Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali described the acts as “among the worst kind of abuse of position and criminal breach of trust involving a senior politician” in his 801-page judgement.
The conviction and the sentence meted out of more than one year's jail and a fine of more than RM2,000 as stipulated in Article 48 (1) (e) of the Federal Constitution would lead to Najib's disqualification to defend his Pekan seat in the 15th general election that has to be called by 2023.
Unless he manages to set aside the conviction in the Federal Court before the election is called, he may not be allowed by the Election Commission or Parliament to contest as what happened to former Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli.
Najib inhertited the Pekan seat since 1976 after replacing his father, the second prime minister, the late Tun Abdul Razak Hussein.
There are more than 40 local and foreign media which have registered with the Federal Court registrar to cover the proceedings.
The Edge will have live coverage of the court proceedings on Dec 8.
The Edge is covering the trial live here.
Users of The Edge Markets app may tap here to access the live report.
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