A KUALA Lumpur High Court judge has declined to hear an application by lawyer Shaharudin Ali to review Riza Aziz’s discharge not amounting to an acquittal granted last week in the latter’s case for receiving 1MDB-linked funds.

Shaharudin said no reasons were provided by the justice Mohamed Zaini Mazlan for declining to hear the matter, adding that he received an email yesterday from the court registrar to that effect.

Shaharudin wanted to review the Sessions Court decision on May 14 to grant the discharge for five counts of laundering US$248 million (RM1.2 billion) in funds linked to 1Malaysia Development Bhd.

Zaini is the presiding judge over the 1MDB audit report tampering trial, where Najib is the accused. He also presides over a corruption trial involving a project in Sarawak, where Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor is the accused.

When contacted, Shaharudin said he will consider several options following the development, including referring the matter to five other criminal judges; or the Court of the Appeal, or before the Chief Justice.

Shaharudin filed his application on Wednesday. The revision application was filed with a certificate of urgency.

In a press statement released later, Shaharudin said Sessions Court judge Azman Ahmad should have allowed a stay of proceedings and not immediately granted a discharge.

Citing Section 254 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the lawyer had questioned whether the judge had correctly exercised his discretion in making the ruling.

Azman granted the discharge after lead prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram informed the court the prosecution had decided to accept Riza’s representation sent in November last year.

Following the court’s decision to drop the charges, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) said in a statement that the government was expected to recover overseas assets worth an estimated US$107.3 million (RM465.3 million) as part of an agreement between the prosecution and Riza.

The decision has elicited competing statements by former attorney-general Tommy Thomas, who denied he had any role in the plea bargain and the MACC and current Attorney-General Idrus Harun, who said Thomas approved the deal.

“All the people involved in making this decision are protesting they did not make the decision. Obviously, they know the decision is wrong,” former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said in blog post.

“It is not about returning stolen money. Most certainly it is not about returning less than half the money stolen,” Dr Mahathir wrote. – May 22, 2020.