Najib Appeals To Federal Court To Disqualify Dpp Sri Ram

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Najib Abdul Razak has gone to the Federal Court in the former prime minister’s bid to recuse Gopal Sri Ram from prosecuting in his 1MDB-linked criminal cases.
Najib’s legal team filed his notice of appeal on Friday last week, targeting the Court of Appeal’s decision to maintain former Federal Court judge Sri Ram as lead deputy public prosecutor (DPP) in the 1MDB cases.
Two days before, last Wednesday, the Court of Appeal dismissed Najib’s appeal to disqualify Sri Ram from being part of the prosecution team in Najib’s 1MDB-linked criminal cases.
Najib’s counsel Nur Syahirah Hanapiah confirmed to Malaysiakini that they filed the appeal to the Federal Court last Friday.
“We have filed a notice of appeal for the disqualification of Gopal Sri Ram on Sept 10,” she said today.
When contacted by Malaysiakini this afternoon, DPP Ahmad Akram Gharib also confirmed that Najib’s legal team had filed the notice of appeal last Friday.
Sri Ram, assisted by Akram and several other DPPs, is the lead prosecutor in several 1MDB-linked trials against Najib pending before the High Court in Kuala Lumpur, such as the 1MDB audit report amendment case and the RM2.28 billion 1MDB corruption case.
On Feb 15, the High Court dismissed Najib’s application to disqualify Sri Ram from prosecuting the former’s 1MDB-linked cases. Najib then appealed to the Court of Appeal, which last Wednesday denied his appeal.
The former prime minister previously filed multiple unsuccessful bids at separate courts to recuse Sri Ram from prosecuting in the 1MDB-linked criminal cases.
Among the legal bids was the one on Aug 28 last year, where the High Court in Kuala Lumpur dismissed Najib's judicial review application that sought to disqualify Sri Ram from prosecuting in these trials. Sri Ram is currently a lawyer involved in private practice.




Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak
Among the contentions by Najib’s legal team was that Sri Ram was biased and in conflict of interest when acting as DPP against the former Najib.
They cited, among others, an alleged meeting between Sri Ram and then attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali in January 2018.
In a Facebook post last year, Apandi claimed that Sri Ram approached him at his house in January 2018, supposedly under the instruction of former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Apandi, who himself used to be a Federal Court judge, claimed that Sri Ram tried to coax him to play a role to arrest Najib, who then was the sitting prime minister.
Najib’s legal team also contended that Sri Ram’s appointment as DPP by then attorney-general Tommy Thomas was invalid, claiming that the Aug 30, 2018, letter of appointment not only appointed Sri Ram as DPP but also wrongly empowered him with investigative powers.
The High Court judge who dismissed Najib’s disqualification application on Feb 15 is Mohamed Zaini Mazlan.
Zaini is also presiding over the ongoing trial of the 1MDB audit report amendment case against Najib and the sovereign wealth fund’s former CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy.
In the ongoing 1MDB audit report trial, Najib is charged with using his position to order amendments to the sovereign wealth fund's final audit report before it was presented to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), in order to prevent any action against him.
Co-accused Arul Kanda was charged with abetting Najib in making the amendments.
The charges are framed under Section 23 (1) of the MACC Act 2009, which specifies a jail term of up to 20 years and a fine of no less than five times the amount of gratification or RM10,000, whichever is higher, upon conviction.
The 1MDB audit report trial will resume on Sept 27. - Mkini

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