FORMER prime minister Najib Razak has withdrawn allegations of bribery against Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali.

Najib withdrew the allegations in his latest affidavit, which was filed in Federal Court last Friday by his lawyers Messrs Zaid Ibrahim Suflan T.H. Liew & Partners.

“For the record, I categorically withdraw any interpretation of what I said which may be taken to mean that Justice Nazlan was investigated for possible bribery,” the affidavit read.

“Regards to the allegations of bribery, I again state that I withdraw them.”

As a High Court judge, Nazlan – now elevated to the Court of Appeal – sentenced Najib to 12 years in prison and fined him RM210 million after finding him guilty on seven counts of misappropriating RM42 million in SRC International funds.

He subsequently appealed the decision but this was unanimously dismissed by a three-man bench at the Court of Appeal on December 8 last year.

Nazlan denied the allegations and lodged a police report to this effect, with Najib having cited Malaysia Today editor and blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin.

Malaysia Today had claimed that Nazlan was being investigated for an unexplained RM1 million in his account.

Before becoming a judge, Nazlan had been general counsel and secretary for MayBank, a lender to the troubled 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), which in turn was an SRC parent company.

Due to Nazlan’s position in MayBank, Najib had argued that there was a conflict and that the judge should have recused himself accordingly.

In the same affidavit, Najib said he intends to call more witnesses to testify on the new evidence against Nazlan, in a bid to nullify his conviction.

The Pekan MP said that it was also not contingent upon him to enquire about Nazlan’s role or knowledge.

“It is a wholly alien and, in fact, entirely startling idea that a party is required to carry out ‘due diligence’ on a High Court judge before a trial,” he said in his affidavit.

Najib’s federal court appeal has been fixed for August 15-26. – August 9, 2022.