JUSTICE Mohamad Nazlan Ghazali, who convicted former prime minister Najib Razak of multiple corruption charges in the SRC International trial, was found to have a conflict of interest, a Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigation has found.

According to a report in Free Malaysia Today, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman Said confirmed this in a letter dated March 20 to Najib’s solicitors, Shafee & Co.

Based on the MACC findings dated February 20, Azalina said Nazlan had violated the Judges’ Code of Ethics and had a conflict of interest.

Shafee & Co had written to Azalina on March 15, enquiring whether the MACC had established a conflict of interest and, if so, it had written to Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat to recommend that Nazlan be subject to disciplinary proceedings for his conduct.

FMT reported that Azalina replied: “I can confirm that the answers to the questions (you have set out) are in the affirmative.”

The Malaysian Insight has contacted Azalina and Shafee & Co to confirm the story.

Prior to this, images of a letter purportedly from MACC chief Azam Baki to Tengku Maimun went viral on social media days after the Federal Court dismissed Najib’s bid to review his conviction and sentence.

The supposed letter, dated February 20, stated that MACC had found “issues of wrongdoing” by Nazlan that the chief justice “needed to consider”.

Meanwhile, on February 24, a seven-member panel of the Federal Court ruled the MACC investigation into Nazlan, now an appeals court judge, was carried out without regard for judicial independence or protocol.

Tengku Maimun mentioned this in the court’s unanimous decision to answer two questions of law over the powers of criminal investigating bodies to investigate serving superior judges, raised by three lawyers.

Nazlan was the High Court trial judge who on July 28, 2020, convicted and sentenced Najib to 12 years in prison and a RM210 million fine on seven charges for embezzling RM42 million in SRC International funds.

Najib is currently serving his sentence in Kajang prison. 

Last week, a separate Federal Court bench rejected Najib’s application to review the guilty verdict and sentence, by a 4-1 majority.

Judge Vernon Ong led the majority in saying there was no miscarriage of justice. However, Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Abdul Rahman Sebli disagreed. – April 6, 2023.