“At the last minute, they appointed a judge who had no experience in criminal trial,” Shafee said in Najib’s SRC appeal hearing before a three-member Court of Appeal bench chaired by Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil.
He said the then chief judge of Malaya had said in response to a letter he wrote that it was a routine transfer.
Earlier, Judge Sofian Abd Razak had been conducting the SRC case management with the view to presiding over the trial, he said.
Shafee said from his more than 40 years experience as former deputy public prosecutor and lawyer, complex criminal cases were heard by “experienced judges”.
He cited the cases of the former Selangor menteri besar, the late Harun Idris, who faced corruption charges in 1977, and former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, who was prosecuted for abuse of power in 1999.
“In both cases, experienced judges in criminal cases heard the cases,” he said, adding that Nazlan had made “error after error” in the SRC case.
At this juncture, Karim urged Shafee to submit where Nazlan had gone wrong.
On July 28 last year, Nazlan sentenced Najib to 12 years’ jail and ordered him to pay a RM210 million fine after finding him guilty on seven counts of abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money laundering in relation to RM42 million belonging to SRC International Sdn Bhd.
Najib is appealing against the conviction and sentence.
Shafee submitted that Nazlan, who ordered Najib to enter his defence on all the charges on Nov 11, 2019 in his oral grounds, stated that the prosecution had established a prima facie case.
However, in his written judgment after finding Najib guilty, the judge had included additional reasons why his client was asked to enter his defence, he said.
“It is highly improper and prejudicial to the accused,” he said, adding that this was also serious misdirection by the trial judge.
Shafee said that in a criminal trial, the court must give the benefit of doubt to the accused, especially when one’s fundamental liberty was at stake.
He said judges could “walk with confidence that they have done justice in this world”.
“Any doubt raised must be in favour of the accused. Judges are doing the duty of God although they are human,” he said.
The hearing of the appeal continues tomorrow.