KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Razak will file a fresh application at the Court of Appeal for a stay of execution on his 15-year prison sentence and RM11.38bil fine in his RM2.28bil 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) corruption case.
This comes after the High Court dismissed his application for a stay of execution pending appeal on Wednesday (Oct 14).
Defence counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said the legal team would seek a stay of both the conviction and sentences, with bail to follow if the application is allowed.
"We are going to the Court of Appeal to file a similar application. We are not appealing because appealing takes (a) long (time).
"It is also called an application for stay. But the focus now is at the Court of Appeal. The reason we will do that is to save time. We can move quicker there," he said at a press conference after the hearing.
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Shafee said the team had requested a copy of the High Court’s grounds of judgment and would scrutinise it before proceeding with the fresh application.
He said the move was intended to allow Najib to pursue his substantive appeal without serving a significant portion of his sentence before the appeal was heard.
"That is one of the reasons why we are saying we should get the stay, because the appeal on the main case is going to take years," he added.
Earlier, High Court Judge Justice Noor Ruwena Md Nurdin dismissed Najib's application for a stay of execution in the 1MDB case, ruling that his defence had failed to establish the special circumstances required to justify a stay of execution.
She said the gravity of the offences and public interest weighed more heavily against granting the application.
Najib was convicted on Dec 26 by presiding judge Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah, who has since been elevated to the Federal Court.
The 15-year jail term is to begin after Najib completes his sentence in the RM42mil SRC International Sdn Bhd case.
The former prime minister then applied to the High Court for a stay of execution on Sept 25.
