IT is up to Najib Razak to petition to the United Nations Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD), for a retrial of his SRC International corruption case or his full release from prison, Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat said. 

Tengku Maimun said Najib’s action does not affect the judiciary as the Federal Court had already delivered its verdict. 

“We have done our job. We have discharged our responsibilities in terms of deciding on the case.

“Whatever avenue he wants to explore, that is beyond us,” she said at a press conference after attending the Opening of the Legal Year 2023 in Putrajaya. 

The nation’s top judge, however, did not comment when asked if any decision by the UNWGAD would have a binding effect in Malaysia.

She reiterated that the judiciary is not affected once the decision is delivered. 

Last week, Najib’s lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said the Federal Court ruling on the case last year had “serious defects” and went against the “rules of international justice”. 

Hence, he had sent a petition to UNWGAD hoping for a retrial or a full release from prison. 

Najib is currently serving his 12-year prison term at Kajang Prison after the Federal Court upheld his conviction. 

Najib was found guilty on July 28, 2020, on all seven charges – one count of abuse of power with regard to the Retirement Fund Inc’s RM4 billion loan to SRC and three counts each of criminal breach of trust and abuse of power with regard to RM42 million in SRC funds. – January 9, 2023.