Federal Court to hear Najib’s final appeal against SRC conviction in August

KUALA LUMPUR, May 9 — The Federal Court will be hearing in August former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s final appeal against his conviction and jail sentence and RM210 million fine over the misappropriation of RM42 million in the SRC International Sdn Bhd case. 

The hearing dates stretching over 10 days are from August 15 to August 19, and from August 22 to August 26.

This is based on an April 29 letter sent by the Federal Court to both the prosecution and Najib’s lawyers, to notify them of the hearing dates.

The Federal Court also said the hearings would start at 9am and instructed the lawyers to be present at the Federal Court in Putrajaya at 8.40am to prepare for the hearings.

In the letter where the Federal Court informed the scheduling of the August hearing dates for Najib’s SRC appeal, both the prosecution and the defence were also told to file their written submissions by July 31.

When contacted by Malay Mail, Najib’s lawyer Muhammad Farhan Muhammad Shafee confirmed that the Federal Court had fixed the hearing dates for the SRC appeal in August.

As for Najib’s bid to bring in a Queen’s Counsel (QC) from the UK to represent him in the SRC appeal, Farhan confirmed that Najib’s lawyers will be filing this application in the High Court by the deadline of May 20.

“With regards to the QC application, our deadline to file is next week which we will be doing,” he said.

Queen’s Counsel is a term typically referring to leading senior lawyers in the UK who handle more complex cases.

While the Federal Court had provided a suggested or tentative timeframe of between June 20 and June 24 for the application for the Queen’s Counsel to represent Najib, Farhan confirmed that the High Court will be scheduling the actual hearing date after Najib’s lawyers files the application to bring in the QC.

“There is an indicative hearing date in June but that was given by the Federal Court. The application however is filed in the High Court so it’s up to them to fix the date which I’m sure will be heard quickly to accommodate  the hearing dates in August,” he said.

Following the High Court’s July 28, 2020 decision which found Najib to be guilty over the misappropriation of SRC’s RM42 million, the Court of Appeal’s three-judge panel had on December 8, 2021 also unanimously upheld Najib’s conviction and fine and jail sentencing.

Najib on December 8, 2021 filed an appeal to the Federal Court, and this is the appeal that the highest court in Malaysia will be hearing in August.