NAJIB Razak’s defence wanted an adjournment in the hearing of his appeal against his conviction and jail sentence for misappropriation of SRC International Sdn Bhd funds to incorporate new evidence in his favour, said his lawyer today. 

Muhammad Shafee Abdullah told reporters the defence team was now missing critical evidence in the appeal and as such, the adjournment was important. 

He said the additional evidence would support the former prime minister’s defence that officials from 1MDB, SRC, Bank Negara and Goldman Sachs had conspired against him.

“They were supposed to protect him and they were supposed to raise the red flag but none of them told him or alerted him or anything,” Shafee said after the proceedings ended today. 

“And the last protection is the Bank Negara and its governor. They failed to do what was expected of them, especially the government.”

He said defence team expected to receive documents pertaining their new evidence in about one month, after which they would file it in the court. 

Earlier this morning, a three-member Court of Appeal bench led by Justice Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil unanimously rejected the application to delay the hearing for a month.

The two other judges on the bench were Has Zanah Mehat and Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera.

Karim said Shafee did not present the court with sufficient grounds for an adjournment. 

Shafee meanwhile told reporters the defence team has been trying to get hold of these new documents since November last year. 

In today’s proceedings, Shafee also raised that the SRC case had not been presided by a fair and experienced judge.

He said a case of this magnitude in Malaysia and in the world was complicated. 

“One would expect a very senior judge with experience in criminal matters to be set to hear this case,” he repeated to the press after court adjourned. 

He questioned why Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali replaced a very experienced criminal judge Mohd Sofian Abd Razak for the trial.

On July 28 last year, Nazlan sentenced Najib to 10 years’ jail on each of the three counts of criminal breach of trust and each of the three counts of money-laundering, and 12 years’ jail and a RM210 million fine, in default five years’ jail, in the case of abuse of position. 

Najib, 67, is currently out on bail of RM2 million in two sureties. 

Proceedings continue tomorrow at 9am at the Court of Appeal in Putrajaya. – April 5, 2021.