June 1 case management for Najib’s appeal against dismissal of bid to recuse Sri Ram

The Court of Appeal has fixed June 1 for another case management for Najib Razak’s appeal against the High Court’s dismissal of his application to recuse Gopal Sri Ram from leading the prosecution team in his ongoing 1MDB audit report tampering trial.

Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib, when contacted, confirmed the next case management date for the appeal. He said Najib’s lawyers had filed the petition of appeal yesterday.

The case came up for online case management before Court of Appeal deputy registrar Mohd Khairi Haron today. It was also attended by deputy public prosecutor Mohamad Mustafa P Kunyalam who appeared for the prosecution and lawyer Nur Syahirah Hanapiah for Najib.

On Feb 15, High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan dismissed Najib’s application to recuse Sri Ram, a former Federal Court judge, from leading the prosecution team in the 1MDB audit tampering trial.

Zaini said Najib’s allegation that Sri Ram had been involved in the investigation against him was unmeritorious and Najib’s claim that Sri Ram was biased against him was without basis and misplaced.

The Pekan MP had relied on communications that took place between former attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali and Sri Ram as proof of the latter’s bias against him.

Najib was charged with using his position to order amendments to the final audit report for 1MDB before it was presented to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to prevent any action being taken against him.

Former 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy was charged with abetting Najib in making the amendments to the report to protect Najib from being subjected to action.