LEAD defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah was today told to ease up on his tirade against high court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali, who convicted former prime minister Najib Razak of multiple corruption offences in the SRC International trial last year.

This morning, Shafee accused Nazlan of being “hopelessly incompetent” and that his judgment against Najib was “poisonous”.

On July 28, 2020, Nazlan sentenced the former prime minister to 12 years’ in prison and fined him RM210 million, after finding him guilty on seven charges of criminal breach of trust (CBT), money-laundering and abuse of position, involving RM42 million of SRC International funds.

At the Court of Appeal today, judge Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil – leading a three-man bench including Has Zanah Mehat and Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera – reminded Shafee to use civil words when speaking about a high court judge.

“Can we use other statements? Instead of ‘hopelessly incompetent’, ‘poisonous judgement’, can we use ‘erred in the law’, ‘misdirection’, in respect of the judge?” Karim told Shafee, who was continuing his defence of his client from yesterday’s session.

Shafee responded to Karim, saying, “I cannot pull punches, if these things happened, I have to say.”

Shafee has so far stated that Najib did not have a fair and experienced criminal judge presiding over his case, adding that Nazlan “blundered” and demonstrated a clear bias.

Najib, 67, has submitted 307 grounds in his petition of appeal on why he should be cleared of the charges, including failure to receive a fair and just trial.

He is currently on bail, set at RM2 million in two sureties, pending appeal. The Court of Appeal has fixed three weeks this month to hear the case.

Today is the second day of hearing Najib’s appeal against his conviction and prison sentence. The case continues. – April 6, 2021.