JAILED former prime minister Najib Razak was given a fair and unbiased trial in the SRC International Sdn Bhd case, former attorney-general Tommy Thomas said.  

In an interview with Malaysiakini, Thomas said that the Pekan MP was accorded a fair trial and judicial process.  

“Absolutely! Throughout! Of course! There is no doubt in my mind,” he was quoted saying when asked if Najib was given a fair trial.  

Najib had applied to postpone his hearing at the Federal Court but was rejected by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, who chaired the five-member panel presiding over the appeal.  

Then, during the appeal at the apex court, Najib’s lead counsel Hisyam Teh Poh Teik had said that he would not be entering an oral submission after he failed to get the trial postponed to prepare for the case. 

In a move that would leave Najib without counsel, Hisham had also applied to recuse himself on the grounds that he did not have enough time to prepare. This too was denied by the court. 

Najib next fired his new lawyers Messrs Zaid Ibrahim Suflan TH Liew & Partners, who had replaced Messrs Shafee & Co. 

Despite the twists, Tengku Maimun ordered the hearing to proceed. 

When asked about the overall Federal Court decision and court process in the former premier’s case, Thomas simply said the apex court had “no other choice”.  

“The Federal Court had no option. You cannot hold the Federal Court to ransom or blackmail the court. I’m sorry, this is an adversarial system.  

“I always use a sporting analogy. You come for a game of badminton in the finals, and one team does not want to play, complaining about the referee. The match is over—it is forfeited,” he said.  

In the previous part of the interview, Thomas had said that Najib’s legal team were “authors of their own misfortune” and that it was “suicidal” to not make any submission during the appeal at the apex court.  

Najib shouldn’t be granted bail 

Two weeks ago, Najib was sent to Kajang Prison after the Federal Court quashed his appeal and upheld his sentence in the SRC International case. 

In a unanimous decision, the apex court ordered the Pekan MP to start his 12-year jail sentence immediately.  

Najib would also have to pay a RM210 million fine, in default of which he would have to serve another five years in prison.  

Thomas—with respect to the then High Court Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali and his judgement on the SRC International case—said the latter had made an “error” in his decision by granting Najib bail.  

Thomas opined that Nazlan would probably have regretted the decision after Najib continuously attacked the judge, which he claimed was unacceptable.  

“I think Justice Nazlan, whom I appeared before many times, and with the greatest of respect, wrote a splendid judgment and is a wonderful judge—one of the best judges, and the attacks on him were unfair.  

“But in my opinion, he made one error. Which was, after conviction and sentencing—people forget it was actually 72 years on all seven counts where he was found guilty, and a RM210 million fine—he gave bail.  

“I think that was a mistake. I said that then, and I think with the benefit of hindsight, Justice Nazlan himself may admit to it now.  

“As a result of giving him bail, the personal attacks on the judge in the last six months have been totally unacceptable,” Thomas said.  

Thomas said the court could have filed that such a serious offence did not warrant bail.  

He said if bail had been denied, Najib would probably have served his time in prison until the Federal Court appeals. 

“If the equality provision was raised in the post-conviction bail scenario, the courts could have ruled that such a serious offence does not warrant bail,” he said.  

“If bail had been denied, and he had gone in, he would have stayed in until the Court of Appeal and Federal Court appeals.  

“The damage to the Malaysian body politic in the last two years could have been avoided.  

“I cannot help but feel that our system seems to still have differentiation in how we treated Najib even from the beginning,” Thomas added – September 7, 2022.