Najib's defence team requests more time to file petition of appeal

Najib's lawyer Nur Syahirah Hanapiah said she has informed the court of the request during case management held today before Court of Appeal deputy registrars Darmafikri Abu Adam and N. Kanageswari.

“The court has asked us to write a letter to request for the extension of time,” she told Bernama when contacted.

According to court procedure, the defence has 10 days to file the petition of appeal after receiving the records of appeal. The due date to file the petition of appeal is on Monday (Sept 28).

Nur Syahirah said they received the appeal records on Sept 17.

She said the defence team needed time to complete the petition of appeal since the High Court’s grounds of judgment consisted of 801 pages with 112 volumes of record of appeals.

Deputy public prosecutor Mohd Ashrof Adrin Kamarul who appeared for the prosecution during the case management, when contacted, said he did not object to the request and left it to the court to decide.

Najib is appealing against his conviction, 12-year jail sentence and RM210 million fine imposed by the High Court on July 28 this year after he was found guilty on seven charges of criminal breach of trust, money laundering and abuse of position involving RM42 million of SRC International Sdn Bhd funds.

The 67-year-old former prime minister was sentenced to 12 years jail for the offence related to abuse of power, 10 years jail each for three criminal breach of trust offences.

He was also sentenced to 10 years jail for each of the three counts of money laundering. The High Court ordered that all sentences to run concurrently.

Najib is currently out on a RM2 million bail in two sureties pending appeal in the Court of Appeal.

The prosecution, meanwhile, has also filed an appeal against the sentence imposed on Najib by the High Court.