KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 15): Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has, in a statement issued through his lawyers on Tuesday (Nov 15), expressed his disappointment that his name is being used as political propaganda despite his imprisonment — that if Barisan Nasional (BN) wins, he will be freed immediately via a pardon.
Messrs Shafee & Co said Najib has categorically denied these allegations, deeming them as "baseless".
“Our client has consistently maintained since the commencement of his trials in 2018 that he wishes to get acquitted through the judicial process of the courts because not only does he want to secure his liberty but also his legacy and integrity.
“Our client is confident that his best chance of being released from prison is via the upcoming review application filed pursuant to Rule 137 of the Rules of the Federal Court 1995. Our client’s application for review is primarily on the basis that the process and decisions made by the Federal Court at his appeal, amounts to a deprivation of his constitutional rights to a fair hearing as his counsel was not provided the opportunity to sufficiently prepare himself for the appeal resulting in no submissions or arguments heard in his defence,” Shafee & Co said.
This, it added, essentially leaves Najib without an effective voice in court at the final stage.
Najib was sentenced to 12 years' jail and fined RM210 million after the apex court in August upheld his conviction and sentence in relation to criminal breach of trust, money laundering and abuse of power in relation to SRC International Sdn Bhd.
His lawyers said that if the application for review is in his favour, the former PM would seek a re-trial under a fair and just process to prove his innocence, where he will be at liberty to present his case inclusive of the application to introduce facts and information that was previously not made available to the defence at trial.
In fact, following the rejection of Najib’s application for a gag order before the SRC trial commenced, he had publicly requested for his hearing to be streamed online for the public to scrutinise (a practice commonly adopted in various jurisdictions globally) as opposed to the limited scope of reporting by the mainstream media.
Shafee & Co added that Najib continues to maintain his innocence and that he had not spent any of the RM42 million on himself and neither did he ever ask or was offered the same as demonstrated by way of evidence that was heard in the SRC trial.
“On the contrary, as heard in court he had also spent RM642 million that he had received from the bank accounts of Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Finance on corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives or via the political parties and NGOs — also not for his personal use.
“Our client further reiterates that he has never asked for and will never ask for his charges to be dropped.”
Furthermore, over the past few years, and as recent as Monday (Nov 14), the High Court here had held (citing the prosecution's own witnesses) that all the items seized by the Police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission in 2018 during what is notoriously known as the “Pavilion and Langgak Duta raids” are not proceeds of illegal activities from 1Malaysia Development Bhd and and its former subsidiary SRC but are gifts to him and his family.
“Accordingly, our client urges his political rivals to no longer engage in unfounded political propaganda and allow the legal process to take its course,” Shafee & Co said.