THE High Court had failed to establish that Najib Razak had personal interests when he chaired cabinet meetings which discussed guarantees to obtain RM42 million from SRC International, the Court of Appeal heard today.

Lead lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said Najib’s pecuniary interest in SRC does not at all arise owing to the mere fact of his shareholding as Minister of Finance Incorporated at first indirectly, and thereafter, directly.

“This is because the interests that Najib had as a shareholder is consonant with his nominal position as the Minister of Finance Incorporated and is not held in his capacity as a natural person,” Shafee said.

Therefore, one of the former prime minister’s charges under Section 23 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009 is wrong and illegal, the lawyer said.

High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali on July 28 last year found Najib guilty of seven charges of criminal breach of trust, money laundering and abuse of power.

The prosecution had said Najib’s participation in the cabinet meetings in 2011 and 2012 was to obtain for himself RM42 million from the RM4 billion funds channelled to SRC through the Retirement Fund Incorporated (KWAP).

“Najib’s interest at the cabinet meetings was not spelt out, thus fortifying the appellant’s view that the interest is in the gratification itself.”

The lawyer hinged on the fact that the cabinet had collectively made the decision and not Najib alone.

Shafee also said the requisite mens rea of the offence that Najib was found guilty appears to be that he had acted corruptly.

The defence asserted that Najib has not “done an act knowing that the act done is wrong, or done so with feeling and evil intentions”.

He contended that this was an unnecessary prosecution and Najib ought to be acquitted.  

“Such prosecution of a public officer can take place if the distinction between ‘personal ownership’ of a company is not contrasted to an ‘institutional ownership’,” Shafee said.

Najib is currently on a RM2 million bail.

Today is the start of the defence submission-in-reply before a three-man bench led by judge Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil. The two other judges are Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera and Has Zanah Mehat. – April 27, 2021.