Najib’s SRC appeal starts Feb 2021
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 1 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s appeal against his conviction and sentencing over 1Malaysia Development Berhad’s (1MDB) former subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd’s RM42 million will be heard at the Court of Appeal next year, his lawyer has confirmed.
When contacted, Nur Syahirah Hanapiah, one of the lawyers representing Najib, said that the Court of Appeal had today fixed the hearing dates of February 15 to 18, February 22 to 25, and March 1 to 4 for the appeal.
The hearing dates were fixed during a case management today at the Court of Appeal. The case was initially due to come up for case management tomorrow, but Nur Syahirah confirmed that it had been brought forward to today.
When contacted, deputy public prosecutor Mohd Ashrof Adrin Kamarul, who attended the case management today, confirmed the hearing dates.
The Court of Appeal also fixed November 4 as the next case management date for the appeal records to be checked.
On July 28, the High Court convicted Najib over all the seven charges — covering the offences of criminal breach of trust, power abuse, money laundering — in relation to SRC International’s RM42 million.
The court sentenced Najib to a 12-year prison term and a fine of RM210 million with an additional five years if the fine is not paid for the power abuse charge, as well as jail terms of 10 years each for each of the six other charges.
But with the High Court ruling that the prison terms are to be served concurrently, this would mean that Najib would only have to serve a maximum of 12 years.
Najib has, however, been granted a stay of execution of his sentence pending his appeal, and had paid an additional RM1 million bail on July 29 as part of the stay conditions on top of his previous RM1 million bail in the SRC case.
Najib filed on July 30 his appeal against his conviction and sentence at the Court of Appeal, and previously obtained extra time to file his petition of appeal — which is part of the process for him to pursue his appeal.
Najib’s lawyers had sought an extension to prepare and file the petition of appeal due to the records of appeal consisting of 112 volumes and the 801-page judgment by the High Court, with the Court of Appeal last Friday granting a 30-day extension which would mean that Najib would have to file the petition of appeal by October 18 to continue pursuing his appeal.
The government had via the Attorney General’s Chambers on August 7 also filed an appeal to seek for Najib to be sentenced with heavier penalties in the SRC case, but Malay Mail understands that this appeal is not being pursued.
It is understood that the prosecution did not file its petition of appeal — which must be done within the required time period — and that no extension was applied for such filing. Last week, it was also reported that the prosecution had yet to file its petition of appeal.
“The prosecution did not file their petition of appeal and they’re not filing for an extension like Datuk Seri Najib is,” Nur Syahirah told Malay Mail when confirming that Najib’s legal team was notified of this during case management today.
This would mean that the Attorney General’s Chambers is not proceeding with its appeal to seek heavier sentences against Najib, since the filing of a petition of appeal is part of the required process to appeal.
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