PUTRAJAYA – The Court of Appeal has fixed this Wednesday, August 30, for another case management for the prosecution’s appeal against the acquittal of Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and former 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) chief executive officer Arul Kanda Kandasamy in the 1MDB audit tampering case.
When contacted by Bernama, Najib’s lawyer, Alaistair Brandah Norman, and Arul Kanda’s lawyer, Datuk N. Sivananthan, confirmed the next case management date.
Sivananthan said the court will decide on Wednesday whether the matter should thereafter be fixed for case management before the appellate court’s deputy registrar or should be mentioned before the Court of Appeal panel.
He said this was due to the fact that no petition of appeal has been filed by the prosecution despite the fact that the time for filing has elapsed.
Alaistair, meanwhile, said the defence is taking the position that the prosecution’s appeal is defective as the petition of appeal has not been filed.
According to court procedure, the petition of appeal is required to be filed within 10 days of receipt of the appeal records from the high court registry.
The petition of appeal would contain the grounds for the prosecution’s appeal against the high court decision.
The prosecution filed the notice of appeal on March 9 this year, seeking to appeal to the Court of Appeal against the high court’s decision in acquitting and discharging the former prime minister and Arul Kanda.
A case management meeting was conducted today before Court of Appeal senior assistant registrar Nurul Azrina Mohamed Yusof.
In the case management proceedings, Najib was represented by lead defence counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, Muhammad Farhan Shafee, and Alaistair, while Sivananthan and Jasmine Cheong appeared for Arul Kanda. Deputy public prosecutor Mohd Fuad Abdul Aziz appeared for the prosecution.
On March 3 this year, high court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan (now a Court of Appeal judge) freed Najib and Arul Kanda without calling them to enter their defence.
Najib, 70, who is currently serving a 12-year jail sentence in Kajang prison for misappropriating SRC International Sdn Bhd funds, was charged with using his position to order amendments to the 1MDB final audit report before it was presented to the Public Accounts Committee to avoid any action being taken against him.
Arul Kanda, 46, was charged with abetting Najib in making the amendments to the report, to protect him (Najib) from being subjected to action.
The offence was allegedly committed at the Prime Minister’s Department Complex, Federal Government Administrative Centre, Putrajaya, between February 22 and 26, 2016. – August 28, 2023