Judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan said the former prime minister’s application was without basis and misplaced as Sri Ram, like any other person, was entitled to his personal opinion.
“It would have been a different consideration if he had demonstrated his biasness when carrying his duty as senior public prosecutor,” the judge said when giving his oral grounds.
Zaini said Sri Ram’s personal opinion did not mean it would impinge on his duty as a prosecutor.
He said the event took place before Sri Ram was appointed as an ad hoc prosecutor.
Moreover, Najib did not make any complaints on Sri Ram’s conduct in the trial involving him.
“This lends credence to Sri Ram that he had been above board in his conduct as prosecutor,” he said, adding that he also found the complaint against Sri Ram that he had been involved in the investigation into Najib as having no merit.
Zaini also said there was no compelling evidence to support Najib’s allegations and it remained purely hypothetical.
“This issue had been canvassed in the previous applications as highlighted by the prosecution. It is a moot point and has been deliberated and decided,” he said.
Zaini said the decisions by the other courts should remain and need not be regurgitated.
“It is the ultimate bounden duty that the trial is conducted fairly in the interest of justice. The court will come to the aid of a party that was treated unfairly if it ever came to that,” he added.
Last year, Najib had filed the application to recuse Sri Ram, supported by two affidavits, one filed by him and the other by former attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali.
Apandi said Sri Ram had told him that then opposition leader Dr Mahathir Mohamad had ordered him to arrest Najib for an unspecified offence in January 2018.
Najib also referred to a WhatsApp conversation between Sri Ram and Apandi which the applicant (Najib) claimed indicated bias in seeking Apandi to charge him.
He claimed that Sri Ram was involved in the 1MDB-related investigations by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission that caused him to pre-judge the culpability of the matter.
This was the third attempt by Najib to recuse Sri Ram from prosecuting in the 1MDB-linked criminal cases. One application was filed in another 1MDB case before a different judge and the second was through a civil proceeding.
Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib prosecuted while lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah represented Najib.
Najib, 67, and former 1MDB chief executive officer Arul Kanda Kandasamy, 45, are on trial over 1MDB audit tampering charges before Zaini.
The Pekan MP is charged with using his position to order amendments to the 1MDB final audit report before it was presented to the Public Accounts Committee in Parliament to avoid any action taken against him.
Arul Kanda is charged with abetting Najib in making the amendments to the report to protect Najib from being subjected to action.