THE High Court’s findings in Najib Razak’s SRC International case were “perverse” and had “delved into pure conjecture”, the former prime minister’s lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah told the Court of Appeal today.

The lawyer said High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali’s explanation of a key witness’s denial of his own signature was “unconvincing” and relied on “pure speculation”.

“The trial judge’s findings in the grounds of judgement on PW42’s (the 42nd prosecution witness) involvement in the RM42 million and the instruction letters was perverse,” said the senior lawyer.

“The trial judge intentionally preferred to delve into guess work instead of properly evaluating the PW42 change in testimony on a crucial part of the prosecution’s case.”

The PW42 that Shafee is referring to is SRC International Sdn Bhd director Suboh Mohd Yassin who was a key witness in the graft case against the former prime minister.

When Suboh was on the stand in July 2019, he was cross-examined for contradictory statements on his signatures in bank transactions.

“A maximum evaluation of the evidence adduced in the prosecution’s case would have resulted in the conclusion that PW42 was at best incredible and at worst a completely unreliable witness,” Shafee concluded at the end of today’s hearing.

Najib is appealing his conviction and sentencing to committing criminal breach of trust (CBT), money-laundering and abuse of position involving RM42 million of SRC funds.

He was sentenced to 12 years’ jail and fine RM210 million after being found guilty by judge Nazlan on July 28 last year.

This afternoon also, the media lost access to the livestream of court proceedings for around two hours. Reporters were informed of a disruption of the process control network (PCN) and Internet access.

The interrupted livestream was also raised by Najib’s daughter, Noorhayana Najwa, in an Instagram story, in which she alleged that during that period, Shafee had made other allegations against judge Nazlan of his handling of the case.

In his appeal petition, Najib, 67, has submitted 307 grounds on why he should be cleared of the charges.

He is currently out on bail of RM2 million in two sureties pending appeal.

The Court of Appeal has fixed three weeks this month to hear the appeal.

The chairperson of the three-person bench is Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil with two other judges Has Zanah Mehat and Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera.

The appeal hearing continues tomorrow. – April 6, 2021.