THE Federal Court has set aside a stay order on Najib Razak’s SRC International case, ordering the high court to set dates for the former prime minister’s criminal trial to begin.
“We are unanimous in our view that granting the stay of proceedings by the court of appeal has no jurisdiction on its own,” said Chief Justice Richard Malanjum, who led a seven-judge panel today.
“We set aside the order of stay and now we remit this matter to the high court for its proper action and let the high court take it from there,” he said in his oral submission.
Malanjum then dismissed an application of stay by Najib’s lawyer Harvinderjit Singh.
The application was for the Federal Court to stay the trial pending the outcome of Najib’s three appeals on interlocutory matters relating to the SRC International case.
These interlocutory appeals – on a gag order on the media and public from discussing Najib’s criminal cases, for the defence to access investigation documents, and on the attorney-general’s withdrawal of his transfer certificate on the SRC case – will be heard by the apex court on April 4.
It means that the hearing of these appeals will proceed even if the high court sets concurrent dates for Najib’s SRC trial.
The other judges on the panel today were Chief Judge of Malaya Zaharah Ibrahim, Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak David Wong, Ramly Ali, Rohana Yusuf, Zawawi Salleh, and Maimun Tuan Mat.
The judges were unanimous in their decision to dismiss the application of stay to the Federal Court on Najib’s trial.
The hearing before the apex court today was on the prosecution’s appeal against the stay order granted by the Court of Appeal last Thursday (March 21).
Najib’s trial was initially scheduled to be held from February 12 until this Friday, but was postponed twice by the Court of Appeal, on February 11 and last Thursday, following appeals by the defence.
Najib, dressed in a brown suit, appeared calm during the proceedings and did not speak to reporters afterwards.
Ad hoc prosecutor V. Sithambaram told reporters outside the court that the prosecution will be applying to the high court for the trial to start as soon as possible.
“Now that the stay by Court of Appeal has been set aside, it means there is no impediment for the trial to start.”
“The order of the court is for us to contact the high court registry for the purpose of fixing a case management date, and fixing trial dates, so we will be doing it immediately.”
Earlier, Harvinderjit had applied for today’s hearing to be adjourned as Najib’s lead counsel Shafee Abdullah was not present.
Thomas objected: “He (Shafee) elects to go to Australia to sit with another Malaysian client. These are self-induced reasons, which should be disregarded.”
The Kuala Lumpur High Court last week approved the temporary release of Shafee’s passport for work-related travel to Sabah and Australia between March 22 and April 5. – March 27, 2019
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