SRC appeal: After six days, defence wraps up case

PUTRAJAYA: After six days, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s legal team today finally wrapped up its submissions on why the former prime minister should be freed from the 12-year jail sentence and RM210 million fine imposed on him by the Kuala Lumpur High Court last year.

They were supposed to have closed their arguments in the SRC International Sdn Bhd appeal last Thursday but requested for an extension to finish their case.

The hearing was initially fixed for 12 days from April 5 to 22, with four days each allotted to the defence and prosecution.

Both parties are also given two days each to make the final round of submission.

Throughout the six days of proceedings, 20 bundles of documents, containing over 2,000 pages related to the appeal, were served to court.

During the proceedings, Najib's lawyers contended that trial judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali had committed grave errors in finding the former prime minister guilty of abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money laundering involving RM42 million of SRC International funds.

The defence team maintained that Mohd Nazlan had misdirected himself on several issues of law when convicting Najib in July last year.

Earlier today, Najib's lawyer Farhan Read submitted that the trial judge appeared "motivated" to hold the former prime minister to account.

"Fact of the matter is that the only person left in Malaysia that the judge could hold accountable in the case is Najib. Key players namely Jho Low and Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil have fled the jurisdiction.

"The desire of the learned judge to hold somebody accountable is understandable as this (RM42 million in SRC funds) is a loss to Malaysia, but it is misplaced to lump it on the head of the person left behind.

"We can sympathise with the trial judge and the struggle he must face as he was put under the spotlight due to the case of the century. But we cannot sanctify his lordship's assessment of the evidence (in the SRC case), nevertheless," he said.

The court was told that Najib did not know that RM42 million was channelled from SRC into his bank accounts as he believed that the money in his Ambank accounts was the remainder of donations from the Saudi royal family.

Tomorrow, all eyes will be on ad hoc prosecutor Datuk V. Sithambaram as the top criminal lawyer would start his submissions.

The appeal is being heard by a three-member bench, chaired by Judge Datuk Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil, with Justices Datuk Has Zanah Mehat and Vazeer Alam as members.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court had on July 28 last year sentenced Najib to 12 years’ jail and a RM210 million fine after finding him guilty on seven charges of criminal breach of trust, money laundering and abuse of position, involving RM42 million in SRC International funds.

-- BERNAMA