Nov 8 decision on Najib, Shafee's appeal to disqualify Sri Ram as senior DPP

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal today fixed Nov 8 for a decision on the appeals by Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his lawyer, Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah against a High Court's dismissal of their judicial review applications to disqualify Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram as senior deputy public prosecutor (DPP) in their respective court cases.

A panel of three judges, led by Datuk Yaacob Md Sam set the date after hearing submissions from Muhammad Shafee representing Najib and Harvinderjit Singh, who acted for Muhammad Shafee as the appellants in the proceeding which was conducted virtually through the Zoom application.

Senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan appeared for the government, the Attorney-General (AG) and Sri Ram as respondents.

"On the decision of these two appeals, we have decided to defer the decision to allow us to read again the submissions by the parties and the cases cited before us.

We will deliver our decision on Nov 8, at 9.30 am," said Justice Yaacob, who sat with Justices Datuk Lee Heng Cheong and Datuk Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali.

On Aug 28 last year, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur dismissed the judicial review applications brought by the former Prime Minister and Muhammad Shafee to remove the former Federal Court judge (Sri Ram) as senior DPP in their respective cases, ruling that the appointment of Sri Ram was valid.

Najib filed the judicial review application to disqualify Sri Ram as the senior DPP in his 1MDB-linked cases in December 2018.

Muhammad Shafee, who is also Najib's counsel, also filed for a judicial review as he too was seeking to recuse Sri Ram from his RM9.5 million money laundering trial.

They sought a court order to revoke Sri Ram's appointment or recuse him, saying that his letter of appointment was invalid.

They also want a declaration that there was a conflict of interest in Sri Ram's appointment and requested for an order to prohibit him from leading the prosecution team in all of their cases, including on corruption, abuse of power and money laundering.

-- BERNAMA