KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Razak has no right to demand for Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram’s appointment letter to lead the former’s corruption charges involving 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MBD), Attorney-General (AG) Tommy Thomas said today.
Thomas also confirmed to the High Court that the appointment of Sri Ram as the lead prosecutor was a matter of lawyer and client privilege.
“A litigant has no legal right under Malaysian law to have sight of the letter of appointment, because that is clearly a privileged document between client and counsel.
“It contains secret and confidential terms that are not meant to be viewed by third parties. The applicant has no legal, equitable, enforceable right, under the law to demand the letter of appointment.
“The government of Malaysia is entitled to the best legal talent in the country and the best legal talent may not be limited to the AG’s Chambers,” he said in his submission during the hearing of an application to disqualify Sri Ram as the lead prosecutor in the case before judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah.
He said the prosecution would be handicapped if it was not allowed to appoint the prosecutors.
“Sri Ram has appeared numerous times, numerous cases in court on behalf of the public prosecutor and his capacity in that regard was never disputed by the AGC.”
On Aug 31, Thomas announced the appointment of Sri Ram, a retired former Federal Court judge as senior deputy public prosecutor to lead the prosecution against Najib’s 1MDB and related cases.
In answering allegation by Najib’s lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah that Sri Ram could be potential witness in the case he prosecuted, deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akhram Gharib said it was baseless and unfounded.
“They have no proof that Sri Ram was involved in the investigation. He (Sri Ram) was appointed on Aug 31 and Najib was charged on Sept 20.
“How can they say Sri Ram could be involved and interfere in a probe within 20 days.
“As a prosecutor, we supervise investigations only on legal issues, for example what is and what is not admissible evidence,” he said.
The submissions will continue on Feb 28.
On Sept 20, the former prime minister was slapped with a total 25 corruption charges involving RM2.3 billion allegedly from 1MDB.
His first four charges were framed under Section 23 (1) and 24 (1) of the MACC Act 2009 while the other 21 charges were under Section 4 (1) (a) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act 2001 (AMLATFA).
In the charges under the MACC Act, the Pekan member of parliament was accused of using his position as prime minister, finance minister and chairman of the 1MDB advisory board, to receive bribes on four occasions.
The money-laundering charges include nine counts of receiving illegal proceeds, five counts of using illegal proceeds and seven counts of transferring the proceeds to other entities.