High Court Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali ought to have disclosed a significant conflict of interest and disqualified himself, said Najib’s lead counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.

He told reporters at the end of today’s hearings that a bombshell revelation had been made at today’s proceedings, which revealed Nazlan’s own involvement and which rendered him a potential witness in the case.

Minutes of a Maybank board meeting in 2012 were tendered in evidence today during cross-examination of the twelfth prosecution witness, former 1MDB chief financial officer Azmi Tahir.

The minutes listed Nazlan as a participant at the meeting, as the bank’s general counsel and company secretary at the time. Shafee said Nazlan held that post between 2005 and 2015.

Shafee said the meeting had deliberated on a RM6.17 billion loan from Maybank to partly finance 1MDB’s acquisition of Tanjong Energy. He said SRC International was a subsidiary of 1MDB at that time.

“As such, it raises concerns of a potential conflict of interest which ought to have been disclosed by Justice Nazlan in the SRC case,” Shafee claimed.

“(Even) if the prosecution does not call him, we will call him,” Shafee said. “He went through all the (loan) processes and formed certain opinions when (1MDB) failed to pay.”

Najib’s current trial is on charges of corruption relating to RM2.28 billion in funds belonging to 1MDB. The prosecution is contending that the case’s convoluted money trail involved the acquisition of Tanjong Energy.

Nazlan, who was recently elevated to the Court of Appeal, had convicted and sentenced Najib on charges relating to funds belonging to SRC International on July 28, 2020. An appeal against the conviction is pending before the Federal Court.