Datuk Seri Najib Razak arrives at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on October 26, 2021. – Picture by Miera Zulyana
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 2 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s application yesterday to add on more evidence to his appeal just days before the Court of Appeal is scheduled to deliver a decision may be perceived as a “last minute” application, but he is not the one at fault, his lawyer argued today.
Najib’s lead defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said that any delay would be due to the Malaysian authorities’ alleged suppression of evidence, and said that it was only from November 19 to November 24 that certain information related to the application became available.
Shafee said that Najib’s legal team did not delay in filing this application for the appeal in the case involving RM42 million of former 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd.
In a press conference held at his law firm’s office, Shafee said he was speaking to the media to explain why the application was made and to respond to guesswork or accusations about the motives for the application.
“You know this last minute application is not caused by us, because on November 19 MACC disclosed this, November 22, the law minister and November 24, Tommy Thomas,” Shafee said in the hybrid press conference that was also held via the video-conferencing platform Zoom, referring to information that was made publicly available recently.
While wishing that such information could have been told earlier to Najib’s legal team, Shafee said it was not too late, and suggested that the alleged suppressed evidence could still be added into the SRC appeal as the Court of Appeal has not delivered its decision.
“As long as the decision is not given, the matter is still pending, but the decision itself has been pending for the last six months.
“So the fact that we discovered this by sheer accident and coincidence is not our fault, we discovered it beginning from November 19, culminating in November 24, and we filed this yesterday.
“We didn’t delay at all. Within days of discovering this, we made some affirmation, my client made a police report, so what I would expect is for the Court of Appeal to make a decision whether to allow or not to allow. We thought we should make this application as early as possible, otherwise we will be accused of not using this evidence which has been concealed from us for so long,” he said.
“As you can appreciate, who delayed all this? It’s the authorities, on November 19, only bagi tahu (tell),” he later said.
Shafee hoped that the Court of Appeal would fix a hearing date earlier for this application, but said it is unknown if it would decide to proceed with delivering the decision on Najib’s appeal against his SRC conviction and sentencing on the scheduled date of December 8 or if the appeal decision would be “slightly delayed”.
“We have been waiting six months for the judgment, what is it to wait for a few weeks for real justice to be delivered,” he said.
Shafee said it would also be within the Court of Appeal’s discretion to not even entertain the application and to proceed with delivering the appeal decision, while also noting that other possible options that the court could do would be to partially allow some of the new evidence or to disallow the addition of new evidence.
“Well, if they refuse to hear, that means they will deliver judgment of whatever they had more or less decided in favour or against us, but the fact that we made the application and assuming it is refused — assuming we lost — it becomes part and parcel of our appeal, because we made the application, it will be a grounds of judgment,” Shafee said.
Regardless of whether the Court of Appeal decides in the SRC appeal in favour of Najib or the prosecution, Shafee said he expected it to be further appealed: “I’m sure either way it will go to the Federal Court.”
As for Najib’s travel plans, Shafee said his client is expected to return from Singapore on December 5 and to return his passport by December 6, but said it was unclear what the latest quarantine measures are.
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