March 13 set for Najib, son's income tax appeal at Federal Court

PUTRAJAYA: Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his son Datuk Mohd Nazifuddin’s appeals against the summary judgments entered against them over income tax arrears will be heard by the Federal Court on March 13.

When contacted, lawyer Wee Yeong Kang, one of the counsel representing Najib and Nazifuddin, confirmed the appeal hearing date.

He said the appeals would be heard by the Federal Court via Zoom.

A case management of the appeals was conducted on Monday (Jan 17) before Federal Court deputy registrar Suhaila Haron.

The former prime minister and his son are appealing against the summary judgements obtained by Inland Revenue Board (IRB) to recover more than RM1.7bil in tax arrears from them.

Two separate High Courts had allowed the IRB's applications to enter summary judgments to recover tax arrears of RM1.69bil from Najib and RM37.6mil from Nazifuddin, respectively, for the period between 2011 and 2017.

A summary judgment is obtained when the court decides on a case, through written submissions, without a full trial and calling witnesses.

Both Najib and Nazifuddin lost their appeals in the Court of Appeal in September last year to set aside the summary judgments.

On May 10 last year, the Federal Court granted them leave to pursue their appeals to the Federal Court.

In civil cases, litigants must first obtain leave before they can proceed with the appeals in the Federal Court.

Najib and Nazifuddin’s appeals will be determined by the Federal Court based on nine questions of law. - Bernama