THE Malaysian Bar has asked the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to reveal the status of its investigations into the corruption allegation against Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali.  

Bar president Karen Cheah said it was “odd” for the MACC not to release any finding into the corruption allegation against Nazlan when it found the appeals court judge had violated the Judges’ Code of Ethics and had a conflict of interest when presiding over the SRC International case.  

“It has been more than a year since Nazlan was said to be investigated for corruption. Why has it been in the sphere for so long without any kind of closure?” Cheah asked after holding a public forum titled “MACC, the ex-PM and the Independence of the Judiciary”.  

“If the MACC report did not find anything related to corruption, then they should have said we (MACC) found no evidence of corruption, and thus the issue of corruption does not arise.  

“At least they have to be fair. They cannot be saying one thing and not the other.  

“Can you imagine the position Nazlan would be in?” she added.  

Nazlan had presided over former prime minister Najib Razak’s trial relating to the misappropriation of RM42 million in funds belonging to former 1MDB subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd. 

On July 28, 2020, he sentenced Najib to 12 years imprisonment and a RM210-million fine after finding the former prime minister guilty of all seven corruption charges. 

Nazlan, before serving as a judicial officer, had been general counsel for Maybank, which Najib’s lawyers contended would have exposed the judge to knowledge pertaining to SRC International, posing a conflict of interest. 

Last year, MACC began an investigation into Nazlan following allegations posted on the Manchester-based blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin’s Malaysia Today blog that the judge had received an unexplained RM1 million in his account from fugitive businessman and 1MDB scandal mastermind Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low. 

With MACC having concluded its investigation, Cheah said the anti-graft agency should be able to confirm this matter.  

 “In the beginning, there was an allegation of corruption against Nazlan and now that MACC has done the investigation, they must be in a position to confirm if there is any element of corruption or not,” Cheah said.  

“But they didn’t do it. They already mentioned to the public that Nazlan was investigated for corruption.  

“Surely now they owe it to him to express publicly that they had found no element of corruption,” she added.  

Cheah believed Nazlan had been dragged into this issue unnecessarily.  

She said even Najib had withdrawn the allegation of bribery against Nazlan at the Federal Court last year.  

“In the federal court last August, Najib’s lawyer Zaid Ibrahim had actually withdrawn the issue of corruption (against Nazlan).  

“He said they are going to proceed only with the issue of conflict,” she said.  

Cheah stressed that the issue of conflict and the Judges’ Code of Ethics 2009 were clearly not matters for MACC.   

Cheah also said should there be any issue of violating the Judge’s Code of Ethics, it was up to the Chief Justice to look into the matter.  

“If it is not about corruption, it is about penal code; then it is for the police to investigate.  

“But if it is something on the issue of Code of Ethics, something that someone should be disciplined for, not removed, then that is the chief justice’s purview under the Judges’ Ethics Committee Act.  

“It is for her to then decide whether or not there should be a committee established to look into the matter,” Cheah added. – April 19, 2023.