Judge Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil, who is chairing a three-member bench, said this hearing was exceptionally long.

“Important issues have been raised and we need time to deliberate on the written and oral submissions. We will notify parties when we are ready to deliver the decision,” said Karim who sat with Has Zanah Mehat and Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera.

The bench also gave one week to parties to put in written submissions on Najib’s appeal against sentence.

The hearing that began on April 5 was initially scheduled for 12 days but three more days were added, making it one of the longest appeal hearings.

Outside the court, Najib thanked the media for covering his case in order for the public to follow what actually transpired during proceedings.

“I would like to thank my legal team who had to work under pressure as they had to simultaneously prepare for other cases as well,” he said.

The former prime minister expressed hope that the Court of Appeal verdict would clear his name.

“My family and I are going through challenging times,” he said in a brief address.

In court, Harvinderjit Singh, a member of Najib’s legal team, submitted that the former prime minister was never a servant or agent of SRC International to have committed a criminal breach of trust amounting to RM42 million.

“The SRC chairman and a director had testified that it was the board that made independent decisions without taking instructions from Najib,” he said.

Lead counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah submitted that trial Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali had misconstrued the facts and law in finding Najib guilty of all charges in the High Court.

“The prosecution (respondent) here made submissions that had the ‘similar sound and colour’ of Nazlan’s judgment to uphold Najib’s conviction,” he said.

He said Nazlan was “cherry picking” to aid the prosecution while he had a “jaundiced view” of evidence presented by the defence.

“The trial judge also put himself in Najib’s shoes on how his government should have acted in the SRC case instead of confining himself to his function as a judge,” he said.

Shafee said the benefit of doubt was not given to Najib when multiple inferences could have been be drawn from facts of the case.

The senior lawyer said Nazlan also doubted whether Najib and his entourage met the late King Abdullah in early January since defence witnesses gave contradictory evidence.

Shafee said it was fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho and not Najib who benefitted most in the SRC International transactions.

“Najib donated RM10 million of the RM42 million for political, charitable and corporate social responsibility activities,” he said, adding that Low used SRC management staff and crooked Ambank staff to siphon off money.

Ad-hoc prosecutor V Sithambaram, meanwhile, said whether Low benefitted in his dealings with SRC International was not the issue as it was Najib who was charged.

“In a criminal case, an accused has to answer the charges and create a doubt in the prosecution’s case,” he said.

Najib, who is Pekan MP, is accused of abusing his power as the prime minister by giving government guarantees on SRC International’s RM4 billion loan from Retirement Fund Inc.

He was also charged with three counts of criminal breach of trust and three money laundering charges in relation to RM42 million belonging to SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB.

In July last year, Nazlan sentenced him to 12 years’ jail and fined him RM210 million after finding him guilty of the seven charges.