THE Federal Court’s final judgement in Najib’s Razak SRC International case has caused grave injustice as the grounds of appeal were not heard, lead attorney Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said.

Shafee said the Federal Court had the inherent role to prevent abuse of justice but failed to consider the grounds of appeal raised by Najib’s counsel.

On April 25 last year, Najib’s lawyers had petitioned 94 grounds on why Najib should be acquitted.

“The final judgement has caused grave injustice to him because he (Najib) was never heard at all.

“There was also the abuse of the court process. No fault lies with him.

“99% of the public would also appreciate that Najib and his lawyers were not heard (during the SRC trial), “ Shafee said at the Federal Court in Putrajaya today.

Najib had last year filed a motion to review the SRC ruling on grounds the court had breached the principles of natural justice, including his right to fair trial and to counsel.

He is seeking to overturn his guilty verdict, as well as the 12-year jail sentence and RM210 million fine in the corruption case involving RM42 million of funds from SRC International.

Shafee said that finality and keeping with time was what the Federal Court mentioned during the trial last year.

“The (trial) should be done in favour of justice and not finality. The question for the Federal Court is if we see this as injustice…?

“We are not asking for the merits of the case to be reviewed but the process (trial) for my client.

“There was a clear infringement of the law.”

Shafee also said he was perplexed why the Federal Court did not hear their grounds of appeal.

“There was nothing in the 94 grounds of appeal. How does one take the opportunity (to defend the client) when not given the chance.

“So, the question is who would suffer. It would be the appellant as all the grounds of appeal were not considered.”

Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Abdul Rahman Sebli who is leading the five-man bench then asked Shafee about the 94 grounds of appeal.

“You made a strong statement that the Federal Court didn’t consider the grounds of appeal.

“You are saying that not one of the appeals was considered? Not one?”

Shafee said that no reason was provided why the appeals were dismissed.

“They didn’t take the time, duty to rehear the matter, it was not taken into account.

“There are 94 grounds. So, perhaps the Federal Court could have said that maybe 20 or 30 grounds could be looked at and offered their opinion.

“If they had done that, then it’s fine. Nobody said they have to take every point (into consideration).”

Shafee added that there were 42 solid points that could have amounted to an acquittal (for Najib).

Also on the panel are Justices Vernon Ong, Rhodzariah Bujang, Nordin Hassan and Abu Bakar Jais.

The review will continue tomorrow with ad hoc prosecutor V. Sithambaram. –  February 21, 2023.