PUTRAJAYA: Senior lawyer Datuk Hisyam Teh Poh Teik has declined to comment on the Federal Court's decision today which attributed Datuk Seri Najib Razak's failed appeal to his counsel's mishandling of the SRC International Sdn Bhd case.
Hisyam, who was at the Palace of Justice to handle another case involving an appeal by a clerk in a "basikal lajak" case, did not enter the courtroom when the panel of judges delivered the decision against Najib.
The five-member bench in a four to one decision, ruled that Najib was actually the author of his own misfortune for the way his appeal hearings had gone.
Federal Court Judge Datuk Vernon Ong Lam Kiat when reading out the panel's decision noted that it was Najib's own counsel who had refused to make oral submissions right from the onset of the appeal hearing last year.
This was despite the counsel being allowed to do so by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, who led the previous apex bench that dismissed the appeal.
Ong was referring to Hisyam who did not make oral submissions despite being invited to do so during the SRC appeal hearing.
On July 26 last year, Najib replaced his long-time counsel, Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, with Messrs Zaid Ibrahim Suflan TH Liew & Partners and Hisyam as lead counsel to handle his final appeal at the apex court.
Shafee had all this while leading Najib's defence team in the SRC International case right from the time the former Umno president was charged in 2020.
However, Hisyam during the hearing, informed that he wished to discharge himself after the court dismissed his request for an adjournment as he was not ready to proceed with the appeal hearing.
When he was approached in the court's lobby, Hisyam smiled and shook his head before leaving the scene and entering the Appellate Court located on the ground level.
Najib, 70, was sentenced to 12-years jail and fined RM210 million for misappropriating RM42 million of SRC International funds.
He was first found guilty by the Kuala Lumpur High Court on July 28, 2020 of three counts of criminal breach of trust and three counts of money laundering of RM42 million of SRC funds between Dec 26, 2014 and Feb 10, 2015,
He was also convicted of abusing his power with regards to the RM4 billion Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP) loan which the Cabinet approved via a government guarantee in two meetings that he chaired in August 2011 and March 2012.
A three-member Court of Appeal had upheld the conviction and sentence on Dec 8, 2021, and this was further confirmed by a five-member bench led by Tengku Maimun on Aug 23.