PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court said there was no need for Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat to recuse herself from presiding over Najib Razak’s final SRC International appeal hearing.
The five-member bench led by Tengku Maimun said the defence failed to provide reasonable grounds to recuse her from the bench.
The other judges on the panel are Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Federal Court judges Nallini Pathmanathan, Mary Lim and Zabidin Mohamad Diah.
Earlier, Najib filed an application to recuse Tengku Maimun from hearing the appeal on grounds that her husband, Zamani Ibrahim, had “negative sentiments” towards his leadership, which he expressed in a Facebook post in the aftermath of the 14th general election.
In the post, Zamani spoke about the fall of the Barisan Nasional government on May 9, 2018, and that he was “happy because Najib had been dethroned”.
Najib s appealing against his conviction on all seven charges brought against him for abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money laundering involving RM42 million of funds belonging to SRC International.
He was sentenced to 12 years’ jail and a RM210 million fine two years ago.
In her ruling, Tengku Maimun said her husband’s Facebook post four years ago had no nexus to the SRC case.
“This (SRC International) case had yet to exist,” she said, pointing out that Najib was only charged in July that year.
Meanwhile, on the defence’s contention that she issued a letter and “sanctioned” lawyers to adjourn their cases and join the Walk for Justice in June, Tengku Maimun said the letter was “a non-starter”.
She said the letter was “standard” and did not disclose any real danger of bias.
Tengku Maimun took note of the fact that several High Court judges and judicial commissioners had recused themselves from hearing cases related to Najib did not justify her recusal.
“We are now left for the decision on (this SRC International) appeal, which we will now deliver,” she said.
Najib then read a 20-page statement from the dock, citing an unfair trial.
