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Judge rejects bid to delay Najib’s trial over ex-AG’s claims against Sri Ram

Hidir Reduan Abdul Rashid
Published 11:17 amModified 12:54 pm

The Kuala Lumpur High Court has rejected a bid by former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak’s defence team to delay his 1MDB audit report tampering trial over an affidavit filed by former attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali accusing special prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram of previously trying to convince him to arrest Najib. 

Lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, who (on behalf of Najib) had filed an application to disqualify Sri Ram from the prosecution based on the affidavit, had argued that the matter should be heard before the trial can proceed.

“We have the affidavit of a former attorney-general. On the basis and assumption, (if) it is true, then it becomes critical and the issue of disqualification (should) be decided promptly.

“Any prosecutor involved in that sort of transaction cannot be a party, cannot be independent and ought to be sent out.

“Far more important is, if this court is to go on with the trial, it would mean as though the application made is non-existent or trivialised.

“This application that is serious in nature to the public… yet the court is going on as though this is trivial when the public thinks it’s not trivial. The matter has to be heard first,” the lawyer told the court.

Shafee likened his application against the special prosecutor to the disqualification of a judge.

“In an analogy, one must purge contempt of court before one can be heard,” he said.

However, High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan (above) said the current application did not concern the disqualification of a judge, among others.

“Recusal and contempt of court must be disposed of first but I am not aware this sort of matter applies here,” he said.
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Meanwhile, earlier during proceedings, Sri Ram informed the court that the recusal application should not affect the ongoing trial.

The former federal court judge said there are around four prosecution witnesses yet to be cross-examined by Najib’s and former 1MDB president and CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy’s defence teams.

“We would ask for the trial to proceed from tomorrow onwards,” said Sri Ram, so that the cross-examination can take place in the next few days of the trial from tomorrow.

https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/530255

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Malaysiakini

1MDB audit report tampering case – Najib wants prosecutor Sri Ram out

Hidir Reduan Abdul Rashid
Published 12 Jun 2020, 9:42 pm72

Najib Abdul Razak has filed an application to disqualify former federal court judge Gopal Sri Ram as special prosecutor for the former’s 1MDB audit report tampering trial.

The accused’s lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah confirmed this when contacted tonight.

“Yes, we filed an application today to disqualify Sri Ram from being the DPP in the case (Najib’s 1MDB audit report tampering trial).

“The application is supported by two affidavits from Najib and (former attorney-general) Apandi (Ali).

“We served the application on the Attorney-General’s Chambers today in the early afternoon,” Shafee said.

The veteran legal practitioner said the application will come up for case management before Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan on Monday next week.

https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/530004

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