Kuala Lumpur: The Federal Court has fixed Oct 21 for case management of Najib Razak’s application to review his conviction and jail sentence in the recently concluded RM42 million SRC International corruption case.
This was told by the former prime minister’s lawyer Shafee Abdullah to judge Zaini Mazlan during a case management conducted in relation to another criminal trial which Najib has that is pending in the High Court here.
Najib, who is also a former finance minister, is facing two counts of money laundering involving funds of RM32 million belonging to SRC International.
On Feb 3, 2019, Najib pleaded not guilty to charges brought for allegedly receiving the money from two companies. The funds are alleged to have been deposited into three bank accounts held by the former prime minister.
Najib is accused of committing the offences at AmIslamic Bank Berhad, Bangunan AmBank Jalan Raja Chulan, between July 27 and Sept 5, 2014.
The trial of the two charges has not commenced, having been held over to allow for the disposal of the corruption trial and appeals which are now the subject of review in the Federal Court.
On July 28, 2020, Najib was convicted by the High Court here on all seven charges brought in the RM42 million case. He was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment and a fine of RM210 million. His appeal to the Court of Appeal was dismissed on Dec 8 last year.
Last month, the Federal Court affirmed Najib’s conviction and sentence in that case, which saw the former prime minister serving his 12-year jail term immediately upon its conclusion.
The Pekan MP has also filed an application to obtain clemency from the Kuala Lumpur Pardons Board.
In court this morning, Shafee informed Zaini that he had written to the Federal Court registry to expedite the review proceedings.
“Hopefully the review hearing will be heard in November since we have also filed a certificate of urgency,” he said.
Shafee added that he will be representing Najib in the review as he is “back from the hustle.”
Zaini also allowed the prosecution’s application to postpone the trial of Najib’s RM32 million SRC International money laundering case pending the outcome of the review application, and fixed Nov 21 for further mention of that case.
Deputy public prosecutor Ashrof Adrin Kamarul appeared for the prosecution.
