Sri Ram to remain senior DPP in 1MDB case

KUALA LUMPUR: Former Federal Court judge Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram will remain as the senior deputy public prosecutor in Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) corruption case.

High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah made the decision after dismissing a bid by the former prime minister to recuse Sri Ram from leading the prosecution team against him.

“There is no evidence to show that Sri Ram will be bias as the senior deputy public prosecutor in handling the case and there is no evidence to show that Sri Ram was involved in the investigations of the case,” he said.

On the request to produce Sri Ram’s letter of appointment (LOA), Sequerah, in his judgment, said the public prosecutor was not obligated to adhere to the applicant’s demand.

He said there was no mention in Section 376(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) for the appointment to be done in writing or a letter to be produced upon demand.

“There is no requirement for the appointment to be gazetted.

“Besides this, the AttorneyGeneral (A-G) himself had submitted before this court that Sri Ram was appointed pursuant to Section 376(3) of the CPC. It can be taken that Sri Ram has the imprimatur of the A-G to prosecute these cases.”

Sequerah, in his judgment. also said the applicant’s fear of overzealous prosecution was mere speculation.

“The court does not find any basis that will lead a reasonably informed member of the public to conclude that the applicant would not be accorded a fair trial if Sri Ram is involved in the prosecution of the case.”

The court also dismissed Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah’s application to suspend the trial, which will begin next month pending an appeal against the court’s decision.

“We will file an appeal today (yesterday),” said Shafee.

Earlier, deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib objected to the stay application, saying there are no special circumstances which warrant a stay pending the appeal.

Trial dates are from April 15 to May 3.

In December last year, Najib sought an order for the public prosecutor to produce a copy of the LOA in relation to Sri Ram’s appointment as a senior deputy public prosecutor.

He also sought for an order to disqualify Sri Ram from continuing to act as senior DPP and, or to appear on behalf of the public prosecutor in the 1MDB case.

On Sept 20 last year, the Pekan member of parliament was slapped with a total of 25 corruption charges involving RM2.3 billion allegedly from 1MDB.

His first four charges were framed under Sections 23 (1) and 24 (1) of the MACC Act 2009 while the other 21 charges were under Section 4 (1) (a) of the AntiMoney Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act 2001.

In the charges under the MACC Act, Najib, 64, was accused of using his position as prime minister, finance minister and chairman of the 1MDB advisory board to receive bribes on four occasions.

The money-laundering charges include nine counts of receiving illegal proceeds, five counts of using illegal proceeds and seven counts of transferring the proceeds to other entities.