“I do not want to descend into it,” Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah said, adding that he had taken note of the case.
Sequerah made the remark after lawyer Shafee Abdullah claimed that Najib’s lead counsel had been denied the opportunity to prepare his arguments in the SRC case, having only taken over conduct of the case a few weeks earlier.
“The appeal was heard on ex-parte basis,” Shafee said, adding that the apex court only heard from the prosecution and not the defence. He also claimed that the High Court ruling in the SRC case was wrong.
In response, Sequerah said the Federal Court did not at any point tell Najib’s counsel not to make his submissions.
Najib was convicted by the High Court of seven counts of abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money laundering, and was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment and fined RM210 million.
The decision was affirmed by both the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court, with the apex court also refusing Najib’s application for a review of its decision.
However, in January this year, then Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah halved the former prime minister’s jail term to six years and reduced his fine to RM50 million.
Najib’s ex-aide an unreliable witness, says Shafee
In his submissions, Shafee also branded Najib’s former special officer, Amhari Efendi Nazaruddin, who testified at the 1MDB trial, an unreliable witness, saying the evidence he gave was not credible.
He claimed Amhari was a corrupt public officer, having accepted US$200,000 from fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho (or Jho Low) purportedly as a loan for the purchase of a house.
“Amhari has every reason to free himself from Jho Low and put the blame on the PM,” Shafee said.
The lawyer also said that Amhari had admitted under cross-examination that Najib had not taken advantage of his position as prime minister at the time the offences were alleged to have been committed.
Najib is charged with 25 counts of money laundering and abuse of power over alleged 1MDB funds amounting to RM2.28 billion deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.
The prosecution closed its case on May 30, having called 50 witnesses to testify over five years.
The hearing continues on Thursday.