High Court to rule Friday (March 1) on Najib's application to recuse Gopal Sri Ram

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court will deliver its decision on an application by Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to recuse Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram from leading the prosecution in his 1Malaysia Development Berhad-related case Friday (March 1).

Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah fixed the date here Thursday (Feb 28) after hearing submissions from lawyers Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah and Harvinderjit Singh, who represented Najib, and DPP Ahmad Akram Gharib who appeared for the prosecution.

Najib is applying to recuse Sri Ram, a former Federal Court judge, who was appointed by the Attorney General’s Chambers as the senior prosecutor in the case by way of fiat (letter of authority).

In his affidavit, the former premier said there was a conflict of interest over Sri Ram’s appointment in the case.

Earlier, Ahmad Akram said in his submission that the AGC could appoint any individual including non-lawyers in accordance with Section 376(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code as long as the individual could handle the task of a prosecutor.

He said Sri Ram’s appointment letter was privileged and it was between Sri Ram as a lawyer and the government as the client.

“It is a confidential document that involves lawyer-client privilege,” he said.

Muhammad Shafee questioned why the letter was considered confidential when Sri Ram’s appointment was announced to the media.

“We want to know what is so secret about the document,” he added.

He said in the context of the appointment, the client was the public and not the government, and hence his client has the right to obtain the document.

On Sept 20 last year, Najib was slapped with four counts of corruption and 21 charges of money laundering involving RM2.3bil allegedly from 1MDB.