PUTRAJAYA: After four years of battling it out in the courtrooms, former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has begun serving his 12-year jail sentence.
He would also have to cough up the RM210mil fine imposed on him by the High Court, which the Federal Court upheld in the SRC International Sdn Bhd case.
If he fails to pay, the Pekan MP will have to spend five more years in prison.
His lead counsel, Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, asked for a stay of execution pending a review application of the Federal Court’s ruling, but the five-judge panel chaired by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat dismissed his request.
“There is no law provision for that,” she said.
In the broad grounds of judgment, the CJ said even without the submission from Najib’s defence, the panel focused on the 94 grounds of appeal in the petition of appeal that was filed.
Najib’s complaints were essentially about two main issues:
1. That the Court of Appeal erred in fact and in law by finding that the High Court judge had correctly found that the prosecution had made out a prima facie case on all seven charges; and
2. That the Court of Appeal erred in fact and in law by finding that the High Court judge had correctly appreciated the defence and that it was argued that the defence managed to raise a reasonable doubt on all seven charges.
The apex court said the trial judge, Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali (now a Court of Appeal judge), was correct when he held that all the ingredients of the seven charges were established at the close of the prosecution case.
“The appellant was thus rightly called upon to enter his defence on all the seven charges.
“In the circumstances, we fail to see how and where any of the learned trial judge’s findings leading to the ultimate finding that a prima facie case had been made out, are perverse,” the CJ said.
Unhappy lot: Supporters of Najib reacting outside Palace of Justice in Putrajaya. — FAIHAN GHANI/The Star
The Federal Court also found that the findings of the High Court on the defence were correct.
“In concluding that the defence failed to raise a reasonable doubt on the prosecution case, we find that the learned High Court judge had undertaken a thorough analysis of the evidence produced by the defence.
“Thus, we are unable to conclude that any of the findings of the High Court, as affirmed by the Court of Appeal, were perverse or plainly wrong so as to warrant appellate intervention,” she said.
The panel also agreed Najib’s defence was “inherently inconsistent and incredible” that it did not raise a reasonable doubt on the prosecution case.
“These appeals are therefore unanimously dismissed and the conviction and sentence are affirmed.
“I pronounce a warrant of committal,” the CJ said.
There was an air of silence after the proceedings adjourned.
Najib’s wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, and his children, Mohd Nizar, Nooryana Najwa and Norashman, joined him in the dock while awaiting the next procedure.
Other judges on the bench were Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Justice Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Federal Court judges Justices Nallini Pathmanathan, Mary Lim Thiam Suan, and Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah.
