KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 15 — Anina Saadudin's lawsuit on behalf of Umno against Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak should not be thrown out by the courts even though she has been sacked from the political party, her lawyer told the court today.
Anina's lawyer Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla pointed out that his client was still a party member when she sued Najib to help Umno recover a portion of a RM2.6 billion amount in his account.
"It is clear that the membership of the member filing the complaint is only relevant at the time the complaint is lodged," he said today when asking the High Court to dismiss Najib's bid to strike out the suit.
Mohamed Haniff also said that Anina's lawsuit "for and on behalf of Umno and the members" meant that she was suing on behalf of Umno.
"Therefore, even after her membership was terminated from Umno, it did not stop the action already filed by her to have Umno crystallise as the actual plaintiff in this case, which consequently is not effected at all by the fact that Anina Saadudin is no longer a member of Umno," he said.
He argued that Anina's lawsuit must remain "valid" regardless of her Umno membership status, pointing out that his client had complied with legal requirements to sue a party by naming Umno's public officer Datuk Ab Rauf Yusoh in the suit.
Datuk Mohd Hafarizam Harun, a lawyer representing Najib and Ab Rauf, had among other things argued that Anina has no legal standing to sue his clients as she is not Umno's public officer.
He cited Section 9 (c) of the Societies Act, where it stated among other things that a society "may sue or be sued" in the name of its public officer.
High Court judicial commissioner Datuk Mohd Zaki Abdul Wahab is set to deliver on December 31 his decision on Najib and Ab Rauf's application to strike out this lawsuit.
On August 28, Anina, a former grassroots leader under the Langkawi Umno division, filed a lawsuit against Najib at the Kuala Lumpur High Court, seeking to claim a US$650 million portion of the US$681 million said to have been donated by a friendly Middle Eastern nation to help the Malay ruling party in its 2013 election campaign.
Anina had also applied in September for an injunction to freeze Najib’s assets up to a value of US$650 million, and asked the court to order the prime minister to fully declare all his local and foreign assets, held either by himself or others in trust.
The former Langkawi Umno member had also sought for the court to order — via a judgment without the need to go for trial — for the full details of the transactions involving the RM2.6 billion donation since it entered Najib’s account until the present.
Anina was sacked from Umno by party secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor several days after her August 28 lawsuit.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court last week struck out her separate lawsuit on September 11 against Tengku Adnan and Umno executive secretary Datuk Ab Rauf Yusoh in a bid to declare the termination of her party membership invalid, but she has filed an appeal.
Najib has denied taking public funds for personal gains and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission is still probing the RM2.6 billion "donation" said to be from an unnamed Middle Eastern source.
