In their 317-page grounds of judgment, Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil, Has Zanah Mehat and Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera said that in upholding the rule of law, they “would have to do what is necessary to ensure that this modern day plague is eradicated for the good of the nation”.
“The law is indeed ‘no respecter of persons’, All men are equal before the law, and the courts apply the law equally to all,” they said.
The judges also quoted several passages of then lord president Sultan Azlan Shah’s judgment in former Selangor menteri besar Harun Idris’ corruption case.
Sultan Azlan had described Harun as a “patriot and leader” in the eyes of the society, but had “allowed avarice to corrupt him” in his political career.
“And some 45 years later, these words still bear relevance to the appellant (Najib), and where we as a nation find ourselves at now.
“The ‘frightening decay in the integrity of some of our leaders’ that Sultan Azlan warned us of, is still a scourge that plagues this beautiful nation,” they said.
Yesterday, the appeals court affirmed the High Court’s decision in July 2020 to convict Najib on seven charges of power abuse, criminal breach of trust and money laundering over RM42 million belonging to SRC International that entered his bank accounts.
It also upheld Najib’s 12-year jail sentence and RM210 million fine. However, Najib was released on bail pending his final appeal before the Federal Court.
‘Arab donation tale surpassed even those from Arabian Nights’
The judges also weighed in on Najib’s defence that the money was a donation from Saudi Arabia.
In upholding the High Court’s findings, they said the Arab donation defence was untenable, as “the said donation entered and left the appellant’s account some time in 2013, well before the RM42 million came from SRC International to the appellant’s bank accounts”.
“This tale that surpassed even those from the Arabian Nights not only lacked credibility, but was contradicted and dispelled by the documentary evidence,” they said. Arabian Nights or 1001 Nights are collections of folklore tales from the Gulf nations.
They noted that the defence had called former attorney-general (AG) Mohamed Apandi Ali to testify on his 2016 media statements which “cleared” Najib in the SRC International and RM2.6 billion donation cases.
“it is worth noting that even after the two press releases, MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) did continue to investigate the purported source of funds from Saudi Arabia and to ascertain if the RM2.6 billion that came into the appellant’s account was a donation.
“However, the trip to the Gulf was futile as MACC failed to get confirmation from the purported donor in the form of admissible evidence.”
The judges affirmed that Apandi’s media statements “cannot be held to exonerate Najib of wrongdoing”, or that the statements could be used as evidence of wrongful prosecution.
“The former AG’s opinion, which he stated during the press conference, was in respect of the state of affairs as at Jan 26, 2016, while the investigations were ongoing.
“Surely, that premature statement cannot bind a future AG from exercising his prosecutorial powers when additional evidence is collected,” they said, adding that further statements from witnesses were recorded after the press release.
Najib has filed an appeal against the Court of Appeal’s ruling.
He was represented by lawyers Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, Harvinderjit Singh and Farhan Read, while ad hoc prosecutor V Sithambaram and deputy public prosecutors Mohd Ashrof Adrin Kamarul, Donald Joseph Franklin and Sulaiman Kho appeared for the prosecution.