PETALING JAYA: The Court of Appeal has fixed Oct 15 for case management, which is the first step, to hear Najib Razak’s appeal after he was found guilty of seven counts of corruption in relation to RM42 million belonging to SRC International.
Lawyer Farhan Muhammad Shafee, a member of the defence team, said the court registry provided the case managment date soon after Najib filed a notice of appeal on July 30.
“However, we have not received the appeal records and the trial judge’s written judgment,” he said.
High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali has eight weeks to provide his written grounds to convict the former prime minister.
The court staff will compile the appeal records that include the judgment, notes of evidence and exhibits by the prosecution and defence.
Lawyer K A Ramu, who is not involved in the case, said the defence would have to file a petition of appeal within 10 days of receiving the appeal records to state where Nazlan had gone wrong in facts and law.
He said the prosecution similarly has to give its reason why the judge was wrong since it was cross-appealing against inadequacy of the sentence against Najib.
“The Court of Appeal can fix the appeal hearing dates only after the appeal records are ready and both parties have filed their petitions of appeal,” he said.
On July 28, Nazlan sentenced Najib to 12 years’ jail and ordered him to pay a RM210 million fine after finding him guilty of abuse of power, criminal breach of trust (CBT) and money laundering.
Nazlan has allowed Najib’s application to stay the jail sentence and fine as he managed to convince the court of the special circumstances for the exemption pending appeal.
However, Najib’s bail was raised from RM1 million to RM2 million in two sureties, which he posted on July 29.
Read More: Oct 15 case management for Najib’s SRC International appeal