KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Razak has lost his third bid to remove former Federal Court judge Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram as the lead prosecutor in the former prime minister’s cases involving 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).
This follows the unanimous ruling by a seven-member Federal Court panel led by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat which dismissed Najib’s appeal after finding that the appeal was devoid of any merit.
“We agree with the concurrent findings of the courts below, hence we dismiss the appeal,” she said in a brief judgement after hearing submissions by Najib’s lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah and Deputy Public Prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib.
The panel however, ordered for a copy of Sri Ram’s Letter of Appointment (LoA) to be produced in court after finding that it was technically not classified under the Official Secrets Act (OSA).
“There is no material fact before us to support the prosecution’s submissions that the document was classified as ‘secret’ under OSA,” Tengku Maimun said.
The judge had further in her judgement said there was in fact a challenge by Najib on the validity of the appointment of Sri Ram as senior DPP and hence the court found that the case was distinguishable from another case involving a similar bid seeking for the LoA of lawyer Datuk Sulaiman Abdullah to be produced.
Sri Ram was appointed by Attorney-General Tommy Thomas as senior DPP in Najib’s three cases which included money-laundering, a criminal breach of trust case with former Treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah and a case involving alleged tampering of an audit report involving 1MDB with former 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy.
On May 7, the Court of Appeal dismissed Najib's appeal to disqualify Sri Ram as lead prosecutor in his corruption cases.