Hearing of Najib’s appeal to recuse judge on Aug 20

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has set Aug 20 to hear former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s appeal to recuse judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah from presiding over his ongoing 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) trial.

Deputy public prosecutor Mohamad Mustafa P. Kunyalam said Court of Appeal senior assistant registrar Nurul Azrina Mohamed Yusof set the date during the case management yesterday, Bernama reported.

Najib is appealing against the decision of the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Aug 18 last year in dismissing his application to recuse Justice Sequerah from hearing his trial.

The former Pekan MP applied to remove Sequerah from the trial after the judge disclosed that he and former IMDB general counsel Jasmine Loo Ai Swan had been partners in a law firm.

In dismissing Najib’s application to recuse him, Justice Sequerah, now a Court of Appeal judge, ruled that since Loo left the legal firm in December 2008, there has been no communication either on a professional or personal basis between them.

Loo had testified in the ongoing trial as the prosecution’s 50th witness.

Najib, 70, is facing 25 charges in total – four for abuse of power that allegedly brought him financial benefit to the tune of RM2.28bil; and 21 for money laundering involving the same amount of money.

The hearing will continue on April 22.