Court of Appeal upholds Najib's SRC conviction

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal here has upheld the conviction and sentence of Datuk Seri Najib Razak in the SRC International Sdn Bhd case, where the former prime minister was found guilty of misappropriating RM42mil from the company's coffers.

A three-man panel chaired by Justice Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil said that the appellate court had found no errors in the decision by the learned trial judge, Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali.

"We dismiss the appeal on all seven charges and affirm the conviction," he said in the unanimous decision here on Wednesday (Dec 8).

The panel said it found no appealable errors that would warrant appellate intervention.

Other judges on the panel were Justices Has Zanah Mehat and Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera.

Justice Abdul Karim took more than an hour to read the decision which was delivered through a hybrid proceeding.

The panel and the prosecution, led by ad hoc prosecutor Datuk V. Sithambaram, were present in open court.

Meanwhile, Najib and the rest of his defence team, led by counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, participated in online proceeding via Zoom from their respective homes.

Najib, who was wearing a striped neck tie and suit, was seen taking notes intermittenly throughout the decision.

In the decision, Justice Abdul Karim touched on several pertinent matters that were raised during the appeal, including the definition of a "shadow director" in SRC International.

"A shadow director largely operates clandestinely without showing the hands," he said.

But when the evidence was scrutinised, the hands were "found", said the judge.

He said the learned trial judge was correct when he found the totality of evidence had showed who was the shadow director of SRC International.

"There are ample evidence that the directors (of the company) followed the instructions by the appellant (Najib)," he said.

The court is now hearing submissions on a stay application by Najib following the Court of Appeal's dismissal of his appeals.