PUTRAJAYA: The prosecution today rubbished Datuk Seri Najib Razak's arguments that he needed to introduce new evidence in a bid to clear his name over the SRC International conviction, describing it as the latest "dubious attempt" to derail the progress and conclusion of the case.
Lead prosecutor Datuk V. Sithambaram said Najib had most outrageously resorted to declare his trial as null and void based on mere conjecture and false allegations against trial Judge Datuk Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali.
The senior lawyer dissected Najib's arguments point by point, especially on allegations that Nazlan had been biased and was in conflict of interest due to his previous employment as group general counsel and company secretary of Maybank.
He said it was incredible for Najib to claim ignorance of this fact especially before and during the SRC trial in view of the publicity given to Justice Nazlan's role in Maybank.
"Justice Nazlan's role in Maybank can be seen even from Najib's own exhibits which were available to him before and during the SRC trial," he said.
Sithambaram added that it was also imperative to note that SRC was never a customer of Maybank nor had SRC taken any loan from Maybank to suggest any possible conflict of interest with Justice Nazlan.
He added there was also no clarity to what the five witnesses which Najib intended to call to provide fresh evidence, would say or prove in relation to the myriad of issues raised by him in his application.
"There is actually no fresh or additional evidence to be admitted as the applicant (Najib) and his defence team had in their possession all evidence that they now seek to introduce as additional or fresh evidence," he said in the prosecution's written and also oral submissions.
On Najib's claim that he received documents from anonymous sources which contained evidence related to his SRC case, Sithambaram said this was nothing more than hearsay based on hearsay.
"The claims of recent discovery and allegations of conflict of interest and suppression of evidence by Najib have no credibility at all.
"The application is flawed and cannot be taken to be an application for fresh or additional evidence as the evidence was in the possession of the applicant and it has also been shown to be irrelevant," he said.
Earlier, Najib's lead counsel started the day to clear his client's name by arguing that the Federal Court should allow him to introduce fresh evidence in the former prime minister's defence.
Senior counsel Hisyam Teh Poh Teik spent about two and a half hours submitting why the admission of this new evidence was necessary to prevent any miscarriage of justice.
His arguments were centred on the alleged conflict of interest involving Justice Nazlan especially on his failure to disclose his previous role as Maybank group general counsel and company secretary between 2006 and 2015.
He argued that facts like Maybank's engagement as 1MDB strategic adviser were not supplied to the defence at the time of the trial.
Hisyam said his client was unaware of the judge's involvement in the establishment of 1MDB subsidiary SRC International and the loans extended to the company by Maybank.
Najib has claimed that he was only alerted to Nazlan's alleged conflict on May 9 and July 7 this year after he received several documents which were sent to him anonymously.
Najib was convicted by Nazlan on July 28, 2020 on seven charges of abuse of power and misappropriation of RM42 million of SRC International funds.
He was sentenced to 12 years' jail and fined RM210 million and this was reaffirmed by the Court of Appeal on Dec 8, last year.
He is now making a final attempt to overturn the ruling against him at the Federal Court.
The appeal is being heard before a five-member bench comprising Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Man, Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Federal Court Judges Datuk Nalini Pathmanathan, Datuk Mary Lim Thiam Suan and Datuk Muhamad Zabidin Mohd Diah.
Hisyam will reply to Sithambaram's submissions tomorrow.