In a unanimous ruling, judge Zabariah Mohd Yusof said Najib was not entitled to privileged documents before the trial begins.

“There could be the likelihood of tampering with witnesses, and we cannot allow this,” she said.

She also dismissed Najib’s appeal for a gag order to prevent the media and public from discussing his case.

“There is no justification for us to give such an order,” she said in her oral judgment.

Zabariah said in both appeals, High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali had not erred in fact or law in arriving at his decisions.

Judge Lau Bee Lan, who read her oral grounds as well, also dismissed Najib’s appeal as Nazlan had allowed the public prosecutor to withdraw his certificate to transfer the former prime minister’s seven charges from the Sessions Court to the High Court.

She said Nazlan had given Najib’s lawyers the right to be heard before making his ruling.

She said the judge was also correct in using his discretion under Section 417 of the Criminal Procedure Code to transfer the cases back to his court for him to preside over the trial.

Attorney-General (AG) Tommy Thomas, who is also the public prosecutor, issued the certificate under Section 418A of the Criminal Procedure Code to transfer Najib’s cases from the Sessions Court to the High Court.

However, judge Rhodazriah Bujang ordered Thomas to provide a copy of ad hoc prosecutor Sulaiman Abdullah’s appointment letter.

“The client-solicitor privileged communication under Section 126 of the Evidence Act, as contended by the AG, does not apply in this case,” she said.

The judges comprised the three-member bench which heard submissions over the last two weeks before delivering their rulings today.