JUSTICE Abdul Rahman Sebli’s dissenting judgment in Najib Razak’s unsuccessful attempt to review the Federal Court’s decision in dismissing his final appeal will be used for an application for a royal pardon, his lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said.

Shafee said they are in the midst of preparing the application with Rahman’s judgment. 

“Our pardon request is exactly what Rahman said in his judgment. The request for pardon is not because, ‘Oh, I did wrong, I’m sorry and therefore I throw myself upon your mercy’, no.

“This is not the pardon that is normally the case,” he said at a press conference at the Kuala Lumpur court complex today.

On March 31, Rahman said Najib was deprived of a fair trial and should have been acquitted and discharged. 

Rahman, was also the panel chair, was the only member of the five-member bench to give a dissenting judgment in Najib’s application to review the Federal Court’s decision to reject his final appeal in the SRC International case.

“For the consequential order to be made, the proper order in my view would be the order of acquittal and discharge of all the offences. 

“It appears to me there is a miscarriage of justice and the applicant is deprived of a fair hearing,” the chief judge of Sabah and Sarawak had said. 

Shafee said in their request they will state Najib did not receive a fair trial as his case was not heard in the apex court and the prosecution was heard by the judges ex parte.

He also said the majority judgment would be sent to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong for comparison, to see “which is the better judgment”.

Shafee said the application for Najib’s pardon would be submitted within the week. 

The apex court, in a 4-1 majority decision, rejected Najib’s application to review its decision to uphold the guilty verdict, sentence and fine against him.

Judge Vernon Ong said there was no miscarriage of justice in the apex court’s hearing of Najib’s appeal in the RM42 million SRC International case  last year. – April 3, 2023.