A three-member bench chaired by Zabariah Mohd Yusof said although it was a criminal case, there were special circumstances warranting the delay in trial.
“There is the prospect of the (seven) charges being declared a nullity,” said Zabariah who sat with Rhodzariah Bujang and Lau Bee Lan.
She added that the accused and his lawyers had not employed any tactics to delay the trial.
Attorney-General (AG) Tommy Thomas told the bench he would write to Chief Justice Richard Malanjum to have the appeals fixed as soon as possible.
Zabariah said the bench would prepare the record of appeal, including four judgments, by next week.
Earlier today, the bench dismissed three interlocutory matters involving the decision of High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali.
They upheld the judge’s ruling against a gag order on the media and the public and said Najib is not entitled to additional documents from the prosecution for the preparation of his defence.
They also said the AG is entitled to withdraw his transfer certificate on constitutional grounds.
However, they allowed Najib’s appeal for the AG to produce the appointment letter of ad hoc prosecutor Sulaiman Abdullah, on grounds that the client-solicitor privileged communication under the Evidence Act is not applicable.
Earlier, Najib’s lead counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah told the bench that his client would receive no monetary compensation if the Federal Court declares the charges against him a nullity.
“He will be prejudiced should a re-trial be ordered when the first is declared a nullity,” he said.
He added that the prosecution would be at an advantage to “repair” its case if a re-trial is ordered.
The defence has taken the position that Najib should have been charged again in the Sessions Court with the case then transferred to the High Court.
However, Nazlan used his discretion under Section 417 of the Criminal Procedure Code to transfer the cases back to his court for him to preside over the trial.
Shafee said the defence was not delaying the trial, as claimed by Thomas.
“In fact, it is the prosecution who dragged us here,” he added.
Shafee said there was only a slight delay in his client’s case compared to the 69 adjournments given when Anwar Ibrahim was charged with sodomy in 2008.
“We are asking for a stay to prevent abuse of process by the prosecution,” he said.
Co-counsel Harvinderjit Singh said the High Court should not sit in vain only to see the possibility of the trial declared a nullity on technical grounds.
“Why is pressure being put on Najib to defend himself?” he added.
Thomas said the special circumstances principle only applies in civil cases as parties may have to pay costs and damages.
“In a criminal trial, no private interest comes into play. Here, it is an action brought by the state against the accused,” he said.
He said the trial could begin on Monday if the stay application was disallowed.
“In the meantime, we could go to the Federal Court to hear the four appeals,” he said, adding that the judge would only have heard evidence from witnesses but not delivered a ruling.
Najib was charged in July with money laundering and criminal breach of trust offences in the transfer of RM42 million into his account from former 1MDB unit, SRC International.
He is also accused of abusing his power as the prime minister by giving government guarantees on SRC International’s RM4 billion loan from the Retirement Fund Inc.
Nazlan last year fixed the trial to be heard in the entire month of March.