by Theleaders-Online | July 10, 2023 6:47 am
KUALA LUMPUR, July 10 — The Court of Appeal today allowed former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who is currently a prisoner at Kajang Prison, to attend tomorrow’s hearing on his appeal linked to his lawsuit against former attorney-general Tan Sri Tommy Thomas.
A three-judge panel in the appellate court chaired by Datuk Seri Kamaludin Md Said gave the unanimous decision to allow Najib’s application to physically attend the court hearing tomorrow, news portal Malaysiakini reported.
According to Malaysiakini, this means the Kajang Prison will be producing Najib tomorrow at the Court of Appeal for the appeal hearing.
The two other judges on the panel today were Datuk Lim Chong Fong and Datuk Azizul Azmi Adnan.
In a hearing conducted on video-conferencing platform Zoom this morning, Najib’s lawyer Datuk Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin argued that his client needed to attend the hearing tomorrow in person so that he could give proper instructions to his legal team.
Najib sued Thomas and the Malaysian government on October 26, 2021 for the 35 criminal charges against him in four trials, claiming that the then attorney general had allegedly abused his powers to prosecute him.
The four cases are Najib’s trial involving 25 charges over the misappropriation of RM2.28 billion of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) funds; a criminal breach of trust case involving RM6.6 billion government funds; a case involving alleged power abuse over amendments to the Auditor-General’s 1MDB audit report; and a money-laundering case involving ex-1MDB subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd’s RM27 million funds.
Those four cases do not include Najib’s seven charges involving SRC’s RM42 million, which is the case where he was found guilty of and which resulted in his current imprisonment.
In his suit, Najib is seeking a declaration that Thomas had committed misfeasance in public office, and RM1,941,988 (or RM1.9 million) to compensate for the alleged losses that he had suffered so far, general damages, exemplary damages and aggravated damages.
On September 8, 2022, Najib dropped the Malaysian government as a defendant in the lawsuit, but continued his bid to seek RM1.9 million compensation from Thomas over the alleged wrongful prosecution.
The High Court on August 19, 2022 dismissed Najib’s bid to disqualify two lawyers from Thomas’s law firm from representing the latter.
On November 25, 2022, the court allowed Thomas’s application to strike out Najib’s lawsuit.
Tomorrow, the Court of Appeal will be hearing Najib’s appeal against his failed bid to disqualify the two lawyers from representing Thomas.
When contacted, Najib’s lawyer Daniel Annamalai told Malay Mail that his client’s appeal against the striking out of the lawsuit is scheduled to be heard by the Court of Appeal on October 4.
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