KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Razak has filed an appeal against the dismissal of his bid to remove Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram from the prosecution team in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) audit report tampering trial.
His counsel, Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, said a notice of appeal was filed today.
He said one of the cruxes of the appeal was in regards to the revelation made by former attorney-general Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali through a supporting affidavit.
Shafee said the affidavit contained a conversation between Apandi and Sri Ram where the latter had asked the former AG to prosecute Najib.
This allegation, he said was not rebutted by Sri Ram. On the contrary, said Shafee, Sri Ram had actually confirmed it.
"If that is the case, then there will be a misconduct on the part of the prosecutors. This is exactly what we have submitted and this is the reason why we are appealing," he told reporters outside the KL court complex today.
Another reason for the appeal, he said, was that Sri Ram's involvement in the case was not merely as a prosecutor but as an investigator in 1MDB-linked cases and this was also revealed in the controversial book by Thomas, "My Story: Justice in the Wilderness".
Shafee said, before the High Court delivered its decision on the recusal bid yesterday, the defence had sent two letters to the judge pertaining to the book in which Thomas revealed that he had specifically requested deputy public prosecutors (DPP) to be involved in the investigations into 1MDB cases.
"In the book, Thomas disclosed in two parts saying that he had specifically requested DPPs to be involved in investigations. He, in fact, in one instance said he sent DPPs to be involved in investigation of a crime scene," he said.
Shafee said Sri Ram's appointment letter also indicated that he was to spearhead the investigation as well as the prosecution in the case.
"On those reasons, we feel we have a very strong reason to appeal," he said.
Yesterday (Monday), High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan dismissed Najib's application to disqualify Sri Ram from leading the prosecution team in the 1MDB audit report tampering case.
In his decision, Zaini said the claims of biasness made by the applicant which relied on the communications between Apandi and Sri Ram has no basis and was misplaced.