Judicial commissioner Adlin Abdul Majid made the decision when 1MDB’s US$7.8 billion suit against Najib Razak and its former company directors and management staff came up for case management in the High Court today. The proceedings were held online.
Adlin is a former lawyer and was made a judicial commissioner in April this year.
The court will fix a new case management date before another judge.
She is the second judge to recuse herself from hearing a 1MDB-related suit this week.
On Tuesday, judicial commissioner Liza Chan Sow Keng withdrew from hearing SRC International’s RM4 billion lawsuit against Najib and former directors on grounds that she knew the former prime minister.
1MDB sought to recuse Adlin from hearing the lawsuit on grounds that she previously appeared for the company in another matter when with her former law firm.
“Without intending any disrespect to the court, we verily believed that there are reasonable grounds to warrant Her Ladyship to recuse herself in the matter,” the company said in its bid to recuse Adlin.
1MDB and three subsidiary companies – 1MDB Energy (Langat) Limited, 1MDB Energy Holdings Limited and 1MDB Global Investment Limited – filed the suit against Najib and the others over alleged fraudulent misrepresentation, fraudulent breach of duties, fraudulent breach of trust, breach of statutory and contractual duties, conspiracy, negligence, knowing receipt, dishonest assistance, fraudulent misappropriation and unjust enrichment.
The others named in the suit are former directors Che Lodin Wok Kamaruddin, Ismee Ismail, Ong Gim Huat, Ashvin Jethanand and Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, as well as former management staff Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, Mohd Hazem Abdul Rahman, Azmi Tahir, Loo Ai Swan and Geh Choh Heng, and two other individuals, Tan Kay Jin and Radhi Mohamad.
1MDB, which is seeking to recover US$7.8 billion from them, was was represented by lawyers Siva Kumar Kanagasabai and Balamurali Tamilwanan.
Meanwhile, SRC International’s RM4 billion lawsuit against Najib and former directors has been fixed for further case management on July 1. Judge Ahmad Fairuz Zainal Abidin will hear the case after Chan’s recusal.
The finance ministry recently said that 1MDB and SRC International, its former unit, had filed a total of 22 civil lawsuits to recover assets worth more than RM96.6 billion, including about RM300 million from various local parties.
Najib, who was found guilty of abuse of power for misappropriating RM42 million of SRC International funds, is awaiting a decision on his appeal against his conviction and sentence.
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