Chief justice heads bench in Najib's bid to bring new evidence to SRC case

Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat and four other judges are hearing Najib Razak’s application to adduce additional evidence in his SRC International case to nullify the trial that saw him sentenced to 12 years’ jail and fined RM210 million.

Tengku Maimun heads a five-member Federal Court bench in the proceedings which began at 9.48am today.

The other judges are Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Federal Court judges Nallini Pathmanathan, Mary Lim Thiam Suan and Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah.

Today, the court is scheduled to hear Najib’s application to adduce new evidence in the SRC International case in his bid to ultimately seek a retrial.

The additional evidence Najib is seeking to adduce relates to the recent discovery that the trial judge, Mohd Nazlan Ghazali, was in 2006 the general counsel and company secretary for Maybank Group, which had the ultimate overall responsibility for the management and administration of all legal departments within the entire group.

If Najib fails in his application, the Federal Court is expected to proceed with the hearing of his appeal against the conviction and sentence imposed on him by then High Court judge Nazlan on July 28, 2020.

Najib, 69, is represented by lawyer Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, Zaid Ibrahim, Liew Teck Huat and M Rueben, while the prosecution is led by ad hoc prosecutor V Sithambaram, who is assisted by deputy public prosecutors Donald Joseph Franklin, Sulaiman Kho Kheng Fuei, Mohd Ashrof Adrin Kamarul and Manjira Vasudevan.