June 1 for another case management in Najib's appeal over dismissal of bid to recuse Sri Ram

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has fixed June 1 for another case management for Datuk Seri Najib Razak's appeal against the High Court's dismissal of his application to recuse Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram from leading the prosecution team in his on-going 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) audit report tampering trial.

Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib, when contacted, confirmed the next case management date for the appeal. He said Najib's lawyers had filed the petition of appeal yesterday.

The case came up for online case management before Court of Appeal deputy registrar Mohd Khairi Haron today. which was also attended by deputy public prosecutor Mohamad Mustafa P. Kunyalam who appeared for the prosecution and lawyer Nur Syahirah Hanapiah for Najib.

On Feb 15, High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan dismissed Najib's application to recuse the former Federal Court judge (Sri Ram) from leading the prosecution team in the 1MDB audit tampering trial.

In his decision, Justice Mohamad Zaini said Najib's allegation that Sri Ram had been involved in the investigation against him was unmeritorious and Najib's claim that Sri Ram was biased against him was without basis and misplaced.

The Pekan member of Parliament had relied on the communications that took place between the former Attorney-General (AG) Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali and Sri Ram as proof of Sri Ram's biasness towards him.

Najib was charged with using his position to allegedly order amendments to the 1MDB final audit report before it was presented to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to avoid any action being taken against him.

Former 1MDB chief executive officer, Arul Kanda Kandasamy was charged with abetting Najib in making the amendments to the report to protect him (Najib) from being subjected to action.

-- BERNAMA