HIGH Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali, who presided over Najib Razak’s SRC International corruption case, should have disclosed his role in the acquisition of a loan involving 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), said Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.

The defence lawyer claimed that the judge used to be Maybank’s general counsel – an institution partly responsible for the decision to provide 1MDB with a RM4.17 billion syndicated loan to partly finance the funding of Tanjong Energy Holdings Sdn Bhd.

“It went through various processes. The RM6.71 billion loan, (part of it) was a RM4.71 billion syndicated loan to finance Tanjong in Maybank,” he told the Kuala Lumpur High Court today.

He said Nazlan, who was the then group general counsel, the risk committee and the entire board were involved in the process.

The judge should have recused himself from hearing Najib’s RM42 million SRC International corruption case as the company was a 1MDB subsidiary, he added.

“He (Nazlan) should have disqualified himself (from the SRC International case) as he will be a witness here (1MDB trial).

“He should have disclosed this when he was assigned to the SRC International case.

“If the prosecution does not call him, we will call him. He (Nazlan) went through the process and would have evaluated (the SRC International case). He would have formed certain opinions, especially when the company (1MDB) failed to pay (the loan).”

Shafee claimed that 1MDB failed to pay its loan because the money was hijacked by fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low.

“A big chunk of bonds was siphoned out to Jho Low. How can you (Nazlan) hear (the SRC International case), which is a wholly owned subsidiary of 1MDB?

“He should have disclosed that he was in Maybank, ‘I (Nazlan) had to deal with 1MDB’, but there was no disclosure.

“We just discovered this point three days ago. We will do another application for evidence to be adduced.”

On December 8, Najib failed to overturn his conviction and sentence in his SRC International corruption case.

A appellate court three-member bench chaired by Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil delivered its unanimous decision in hybrid proceedings.

Najib was found guilty of seven charges of abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money laundering by Nazlan in July last year. He is sentenced to 12 years’ jail and fined RM210 million. – March 14, 2022.