KUALA LUMPUR: The dissenting judgment by Federal Court judge Justice Abdul Rahman Sebli which favoured Datuk Seri Najib Razak will be used to support the former prime minister’s application for a royal pardon, says lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.
According to him, the pardon application was being prepared with the minority judgment included in it.
The pardon request would state that Najib did not receive a fair trial where he was not heard by the Federal Court, but it had heard the prosecution.
Muhammad Shafee said the pardon request was “exactly what Justice Abdul Rahman said in his judgment”.
“The request for pardon is not because, ‘Oh, I did wrong, I’m sorry and therefore I throw myself upon your mercy’, no.
“This is not the pardon that is normally the case,” he said at a press conference at the Kuala Lumpur Court Complex yesterday.
Shafee said his team would also be sending the majority decision to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong for comparison. The pardon application is expected to be submitted in a week.
On March 31, the Federal Court delivered a 4-1 majority decision in dismissing Najib’s bid for leave to review his conviction and sentence in the RM42mil SRC International Sdn Bhd case.
In his dissenting view, Justice Abdul Rahman, who is the Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak, said Najib did not have an effective legal representation after the counsel of his choice, Datuk Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, refused to represent him further in the final appeal, and that the Federal Court was wrong when it refused to let Hisyam discharge himself.
Other judges on the bench were Federal Court judges Justices Vernon Ong, Rhodzariah Bujang, Nordin Hassan and Court of Appeal judge Justice Abu Bakar Jais.
