THE High Court in Kuala Lumpur yesterday acquitted jailed former prime minister Najib Razak and former 1MDB chief executive officer Arul Kanda of tampering with the 1MDB audit report.

Justice Zaini Mazlan held that the prosecution had failed to establish a prima facie case against the accused under section 23 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009.

While the acquittal “has lifted and reignited” the disgraced Najib’s spirits and desire to fight, his lawyer, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, expressed hope that the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) would not appeal against the decision because “the findings of the judge are completely supportable”.

However, the AGC would automatically file an appeal after losing a criminal trial.

The practice was disclosed by former attorney-general Mohd Apandi Ali, who said that it was a “long practice of the prosecution in this country to be 99% sure it can secure a conviction before proffering a criminal charge”.

It was the practice since the time Abu Talib Othman was attorney-general (1980-1993).

The filing of a notice for appeal would be done even before the grounds of judgment had been given, Apandi added.

Following the filing of the notice of appeal, the court would have to make a signed copy of the grounds of decision in the case and cause it to be served upon the AGC if the public prosecutor (PP) is the appellant.

Only then would the AGC be in possession of the full grounds of decision for it to study the grounds given by the trial judge, including whether the findings of the trial judge were supportable in law.

The AGC would then decide whether to proceed or not with the appeal.

According to Apandi, this was how the AGC was apolitical and any prosecution was based strictly on the facts and the law.

The public therefore can expect the AGC to appeal because it is “automatic”, more so when the prosecution had failed to prove a prima facie at the end of its own case.

Will the prosecution concede that it had failed in its legal duty to prove a prima facie case? – March 4, 2023.

* Hafiz Hassan reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.