AG’s Chambers to ask court to speed up Najib’s appeal process

Attorney General Tommy Thomas. – AP

KUALA LUMPUR: The prosecution will be applying to the Court of Appeal to expedite the appeal by former premier Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak involving his seven charges of money laundering, power abuse and criminal breach of trust relating to SRC International Sdn Bhd.

Attorney General Tommy Thomas (pic) informed High Court judge Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali of this here on Tuesday (Feb 12).

He said the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) would be writing to Court of Appeal president Justice Ahmad Maarop on the matter.

This move was to enable the main trial to be heard after Feb 22, he said.

The prosecution also asked for the hearing, which was supposed to commence today (Feb 12), to be vacated.

However, the prosecution asked for the trial dates from Feb 25 to Feb 28 and March 4 to March 29 to be maintained.

“We are confident that the appeal by the accused would be decided before the date (Feb 25).

“We do not want to delay the trial,” Thomas said.

Earlier, he informed the High Court that the Court of Appeal had allowed Najib’s application to stay the main trial pending the disposal of his appeal.

On Feb 7, Justice Mohd Nazlan allowed an application for Thomas to withdraw the certificate to transfer the seven SRC International-related charges against Najib from the Sessions Court to the High Court.

The withdrawal, according to Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, had affected the entire proceeding.

On Feb 8, Najib filed an appeal against Justice Mohd Nazlan’s decision as well as an application to stay the trial.

On Monday (Feb 11), the Court of Appeal allowed the stay.

On July 4 last year, the 66-year-old Najib, also the Pekan MP, claimed trial to a charge of abuse of power and three counts of criminal breach of trust (CBT) linked to the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal.

He allegedly misappropriated RM42mil in funds belonging to SRC International, a former subsidiary of 1MDB.

On Aug 8, 2018, he appeared in court again for the second time and was charged with three counts of money laundering involving the same RM42mil.