KUALA LUMPUR, March 14 — The High Court judge who had heard the trial against former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak over the misappropriation of RM42 million from 1Malaysia Development Berhad’s former subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd should have disqualified himself from hearing the case, Najib’s lawyer claimed today.
Shafee’s highlighting of Nazlan’s previous role comes more than one and a half years after the High Court’s decision was delivered. “Yes, we are going to put in an application because we just discovered this only three days ago,” Shafee told reporters when met at the Kuala Lumpur court complex.tomorrow when the Federal Court hears their application to add in purported new evidence
Shafee claimed that Nazlan — who is now a Court of Appeal judge — should not have heard the SRC trial, due to the latter’s past role as company secretary and group general counsel for Maybank in 2012 when the bank had lent RM4.17 billion to 1MDB to help finance the company’s acquisition of independent power producer Tanjong Energy Holdings Sdn Bhd .
“Nazlan, the judge who heard the case in SRC, he should have disqualified himself, because he will be a witness here. If the prosecution doesn’t call him, we will call him,” Shafee claimed, referring to Najib’s separate 1MDB trial which is being heard before High Court judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah.
Where is the nexus between company secretary and 1MDB loan? By extension, Jibby by virtue of his role as PM will have connections with every Malaysian.