KUALA LUMPUR (March 14): Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah will file an application to adduce fresh evidence with regard to High Court Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali, who presided over the SRC International Sdn Bhd matter.
Shafee said this was because Justice Nazlan served as group general counsel for Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) who took part in the decision to give 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) a loan of RM4.17 billion to partly finance the acquisition of Tanjong Energy Holdings Sdn Bhd.
Shafee said that Justice Nazlan should have "disqualified" himself due to some opinions formed during the process of giving the loan. He also added that his team only became aware of this three days ago.
"Because he went through the process and he evaluated, he would have had formed certain opinions especially when the company failed to pay.
"Question is, if you have formed some kind of opinion about the company, about the way the company mishandled itself, how can you hear [a case on 1MDB's wholly-owned] subsidiary SRC?" he asked.
The senior lawyer also indicated that he may call the judge to testify in the ongoing 1MDB-Tanore matter.
"He [will] be a witness here. If the prosecution doesn't call him, we will call him," he said.
He did not elaborate on when the application will be made.
Previously, in December 2021, the Court of Appeal (COA) dismissed an application to include fresh evidence, which would have enabled Najib to call Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki and former SRC investigating officer Rosli Hussein to be examined, as "not necessary".
In the SRC matter, Najib was found guilty in July 2020 of all seven counts of abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money laundering.
He was sentenced to 12 years in jail and fined RM210 million for misappropriating RM42 million through SRC.
The COA upheld the decision in December 2021 and Najib is appealing the decision at the Federal Court. However, the appellate court also granted a stay of execution, which means Najib escapes jail time for now.