THE Federal Court heard today that judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali’s previous stint as Maybank’s general counsel has nothing to do with him presiding over Najib Razak’s SRC International case. 

Ad hoc prosecutor V Sithambaram said that there was no conflict of interest in Nazlan presiding over Najib’s case despite him previously having a position with Maybank. 

“Maybank did some work for SRC and was paid RM800,000 in fees.”

“So what if Nazlan had worked for the bank?” he asked.

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 the SRC parent company.

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

While Najib had withdrawn his allegation of bribery against the judge, he had been adamant about producing new evidence in his appeal.

Blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin had claimed that Nazlan was being investigated for an unexplained RM1 million in his account.

Sithambaram said that Nazlan’s tenure at Maybank was already in the public domain before he was elevated to the bench in 2015.

“The bank had provided consultancy services to SRC but not to the extent of Nazlan personally giving advice on the setting up of SRC.”

Najib is on his final appeal to quash his conviction and present an application to adduce fresh evidence to nullify his conviction or get a retrial.

He was found guilty of all seven criminal charges for having received RM42 million in funds from SRC International on July 28, 2020.

The then High Court judge and now Court of Appeal Judge Nazlan had sentenced Najib to 12 years in jail and a fine of RM210 million.

Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat heads the panel which also includes Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Federal Court judges Nallini Pathmanathan, Mary Lim, and Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah. – August 15, 2022.