Najib’s lawyer, Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin, told the High Court here that Alan Gomez and Lai Wei Shiung came from the same firm as Thomas.
“Members of a firm should not represent their partners, consultants and fellow lawyers in contentious matters. They cannot act objectively (for Thomas) in the interest of justice,” he said.
Firoz also said the lawyers and Thomas have “pecuniary interest” in the firm, and that Thomas wrote in his book titled “My Story: Justice in the Wilderness” about how he worked with his partners.
“And he (Thomas) is a consultant (in the firm) now,” he pointed out.
In response, Gomez said the objection was merely an attempt to delay the hearing of their bid to nullify Najib’s lawsuit.
In his suit, Najib claimed that the 1MDB-related charges against him during Thomas’ tenure were “part of a long-planned, premeditated exercise”. He is seeking RM1.94 million in damages.
However, Thomas and the government are seeking to nullify the lawsuit on grounds that the case was frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of court process.
Gomez said that, as a consultant, Thomas had no pecuniary interest in the firm and did not enjoy profits from it, adding that Firoz’s monetary interest argument had no merit.
“The former prime minister’s suit today is against him (Thomas) for bringing criminal charges during his tenure as AG.
“The suit has nothing to do with the firm and we (members of the firm) would not be called as witnesses to testify later,” he said.
He said that if the lawsuit went to full trial and Najib succeeded, the judgment would be entered against the government and not Thomas’ firm.
Judge Ahmad Bache fixed Aug 19 to decide on the objection by Najib’s lawyers against the appearance of Gomez and Lai.
Earlier, Ahmad questioned the Attorney-General’s Chambers, which is appearing for the government, over whether Attorney-General Idrus Harun issued letters of appointment or fiat for Gomez and Lai to represent Thomas.
“He was sued in his capacity as a former government officer. The (current) AG needs to give his consent for lawyers to appear for government officials,” he said.
To that, senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan said Idrus consented to the appointment of Gomez and Lai on July 29, and affirmed their appointments were in order.