A three-member bench is expected to hear the former prime minister’s appeal against conviction and sentence.
On July 28 last year, High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali sentenced Najib to 12 years’ jail and ordered him to pay a RM210 million fine after finding him guilty of seven charges of abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money laundering in relation to RM42 million belonging to SRC International Sdn Bhd.
He allowed Najib’s application to stay the jail sentence and fine but the former prime minister was asked to post a RM2 million bail, which he did.
Najib has submitted 307 grounds in his petition of appeal on why he should be acquitted of the charges.
FMT understands that Najib’s legal team led by Muhammad Shafee Abdullah has filed a 2,500 page written submission while the respondent, the public prosecutor, has filed about 1,100 pages in submission.
A total of 76 prosecution and defence witnesses gave evidence in the trial that lasted 57 days from April 3, 2019.
Nazlan has provided a detailed judgment running into 801-pages while the court has prepared appeal records that include notes of trial proceedings.
Nazlan had said Najib’s conviction constituted nothing less than an absolute betrayal of trust.
He allowed Najib to personally address the court even after his lawyer Shafee had undertaken an extensive defence argument.
Najib, who ended his mitigation by taking the “Islamic oath”, said he had never demanded the RM42 million, never planned for it and that it was also never offered to him.
Retired judge Gopal Sri Ram said the Court of Appeal’s role was to consider carefully the submissions made, examine the appeal records, see whether the conviction was safe or whether there was a misdirection that had occasioned a miscarriage of justice.
“All other points have to rotate around these principles of law,” said Sri Ram, who served in the appellate court for 15 years.
He said in corruption cases a three-member bench was sufficient because the principles of law were settled.
Sri Ram said an appellant could also raise constitutional issues which he had not brought up during the trial.
Lawyer V Sithambaram, who has been given a special licence by the attorney-general, will be leading the prosecution team. Assisting him will be Donald Joseph Franklin, Sulaiman Kho Kheng Fuei and Mohd Ashrof Adrin Kamil.
Shafee will be assisted by Harvinderjit Singh, Farhan Muhammad Shafee and Nur Syahirah Hanapiah.