PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court has affirmed former prime minister Najib Razak’s conviction and sentence in the SRC International case.
This means Najib, the Pekan MP, is set to begin serving his jail term immediately.
On July 28, 2020, Najib was convicted on all charges and sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment and a fine of RM210 million.
With the decision, Najib becomes the first former prime minister in the history of the country to be jailed.
Najib was appealing his conviction by judge Nazlan Ghazali on all seven charges brought against him for abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money laundering involving RM42 million of funds belonging to SRC International, for which he was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment and fined RM210 million two years ago.
Reading out the unanimous decision of the court, Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat said: “It is our unanimous view that the evidence led during the trial points overwhelmingly to guilt on all seven charges so much so that it would have been a travesty of justice of the highest order if any reasonable tribunal, faced with such evidence staring it in the face, were to find that the appellant (Najib) is not guilty of the seven charges preferred against him.”
Tengku Maimun led a five-member apex court bench which also comprised Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim, and apex court judges Nallini Pathmanathan, Mary Lim and Mohamad Zabidin Diah.
Today’s decision also means that Najib is set to lose his seat as the MP for Pekan under Article 48(1)(e) of the Federal Constitution.
Najib, then only 23 years old, first won the Pekan seat unopposed in 1976 upon the demise of his father, Abdul Razak Hussein, the country’s second prime minister. Two years later, he was appointed a deputy minister. He went on to become Pahang’s menteri besar between 1982 and 1986, after which he held several Cabinet portfolios.
He became deputy prime minister to Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in 2004 and went on to replace him in 2009, becoming the country’s sixth prime minister, a post which he held for nine years until his Barisan Nasional government was overthrown in the 14th general election on May 9, 2018.
The hearing of Najib’s appeal commenced on Aug 18, after the Federal Court spent Monday and Tuesday of last week hearing his motion for leave to adduce fresh evidence to show that Nazlan ought not to have presided over the trial due to an alleged “serious conflict of interests.” That application was dismissed on Tuesday afternoon.
Upon its dismissal, lead counsel Hisyam Teh Poh Teik applied for the hearing to be postponed, citing insufficient time to prepare his arguments. That application was rejected by the apex court.
Hisyam had been appointed lead counsel by Najib on July 25 replacing Shafee Abdullah, while the law firm of Zaid Ibrahim Suflan TH Liew & Partners took over conduct as solicitors from Shafee & Co.
When the hearing began on Thursday, Hisyam apologised to the court and asked to be discharged from representing Najib as he was not ready to make his submissions.
The bench rejected the request and directed him to continue representing Najib, although it allowed the discharge of the rest of Najib’s legal team, including co-counsel Zaid Ibrahim and his firm as solicitors.
Since the defence counsel was unable to make his submissions, Tengku Maimun called on ad hoc prosecutor, V Sithambaram, to deliver his submissions. The prosecution closed its submissions at the end of last week.
Najib was arrested on July 3, 2018 and charged the following day. His trial was conducted in the High Court over 79 days between April 2019 and March 2020 and a total of 86 witnesses testified. He was convicted on July 28, 2020.
On Dec 8, 2021, a three-member Court of Appeal panel chaired by Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil unanimously upheld his conviction and sentence. The other judges who presided were Has Zanah Mehat and Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera.