Shafee S Bid To Remove Sri Ram To Be Heard After Najib S

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The High Court in Kuala Lumpur will on March 21 hear prominent lawyer Shafee Abdullah's application to disqualify former judge Gopal Sri Ram from being the lead prosecutor in his criminal cases.

This came after Shafee's counsel Muhammad Farhan Shafee requested for the court to set the hearing after the disposal of a similar application from former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak
Farhan, who is also Shafee's son, told the court presided by Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah that both applications by Shafee and Najib were similar and the decision on Najib's could be applied to Shafee's bid
"We want to adjourn the matter until Najib's case is disposed of because the issues are the same, albeit different in terms of facts
"So we proposed that Najib's case is disposed of (first), so that the judge would only have to deal with one case and apply the same in this case (Shafee's)," Farhan told reporters outside the courtroom
Najib's application hearing, which started last Wednesday, is expected to continue this Thursday, before the same judge
During mention for the case, Justice Sequerah gave both the prosecution, led by deputy public prosecutor Kamal Baharin Omar, and the defence two weeks from today to exhaust all affidavits
The judge also ordered both parties to file their submissions by March 14
It was reported that both Shafee and Najib want the High Court to dismiss Sri Ram, a retired Federal Court judge, as lead prosecutor in separate criminal cases brought against them
In Shafee's case, Sri Ram was appointed as the lead prosecutor in money-laundering charges amounting to RM9.5 million, which Shafee had allegedly received as payments from Najib.
In Najib's case, Sri Ram is also the lead prosecutor for the former's 1MDB-linked corruption and money-laundering charges. Najib filed his application to dismiss Sri Ram in January
Prior to this, Najib and Shafee had filed separate applications for a judicial review on the appointment of Sri Ram
Their application was dismissed last Wednesday, with the civil court judge ruling that it was more suitable for the matter to be handled by a criminal court. - Mkini

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