Najib fails to recuse CJ

PUTRAJAYA: Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat will continue to lead the Federal Court's five-member bench in Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak's SRC International Sdn Bhd appeal.

This was after the apex court dismissed Najib's eleventh-hour application to recuse the top judge from hearing his final appeal.

Justice Tengku Maimun presided over the appeal with Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Federal Court judges Datuk Nallini Pathmanathan, Datuk Mary Lim Thiam Suan and Datuk Mohamad Zabidin Mohd.

After nearly a three-hour stand down, Justice Tengku Maimun when reading out her judgment, ruled that there was no nexus between the Facebook posting made by her husband with this appeal.

"This posting happened four years ago," she said.

Chief Justice Tengku Maimun said that based on the Facebook post by her husband (Datuk Zamani Ibrahim) and the 'Walk for Justice' organised by the Malaysian Bar, she is of the view that it did not mean the legal threshold of bias has been passed.

"To recuse a judge is a real danger of bias. It is my view that the test has not been established. The Facebook post by my husband cannot amount to a real danger of bias," she said.

She said the Facebook posting was made four years ago when the case was not even there.

"The views are expressed by a third party (by the spouse) and the letter issued by the court on allowing lawyers to attend the Walk of Justice is a non-starter," she said.

Meanwhile, Justice Abang Iskandar also reiterated that the bench is dismissing the application to recuse the top judge as, at the time of her husband's Facebook post, the case had not begun.

-- BERNAMA