PUTRAJAYA: Datuk Seri Najib Razak started the first day of his appeal hearing trying to convince three judges to overturn his 12-year jail sentence and RM210 million fine by questioning the competency of the High Court judge who convicted and sentenced him.
Najib said Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali was a greenhorn who had never presided over any criminal case and was therefore utterly inexperienced to preside over his trial, describing it as the "case of the century".
The former prime minister's lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah also did not hesitate to drag in the names of former Bank Negara governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, her husband and son as characters who were responsible for the mess in which his client fond himself.
Bank Negara Malaysia and Ambank were also not spared and named as parties which had failed to be honest and truthful to Najib in handling his bank accounts and protecting him by red-flagging suspect transactions.
Shafee pitched hard from the onset of the hearing pleading for the appeal to be delayed by another month at the very least, arguing that he needed time to gather new evidence which could exonerate Najib of any guilt whatsoever.
He also blamed various authorities of being uncooperative, even accusing some of sabotage, as they were reluctant to supply much needed information and documentation about kickbacks received by various 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) officials and Zeti's family members.
The proceedings this morning started with Shafee immediately making an application for the appeal hearing to be adjourned.
The senior counsel vigorously pressed for the three-member bench to delay the hearing by another month at the very least, arguing that he was trying hard to gather evidence from Singapore and New York about 1MDB-linked bribery and kickbacks given to Zeti's family and other officials.
Later, during a press conference, Shafee continued to make his case on Najib's right to get his hands on the documents by pointing out that even DAP leaders like Lim Kit Siang and Lim Guan Eng had voiced out their support for this to happen.
However, judge Datuk Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil, who is heading the bench, did not buy Shafee's arguments for the hearing to be postponed, ruling that there was no sufficient reason for the court to adjourn proceedings.
Shafee then got on with the appeal and trained his sights on Nazlan's handling of the trial which ended in Najib's conviction of all seven charges of abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money laundering involving RM42 million of SRC International Sdn Bhd funds.
Nazlan had on July 28 last year sentenced Najib to 12 years' jail and ordered him to pay RM210 million after finding him guilty of all the charges.
Shafee today questioned Nazlan's appointment to preside over the trial, pointing out that the latter had never handled a criminal case before Najib's.
"This was the biggest case in the world... it was the case of the century. Yet, at the last minute, they appointed a judge who had no experience in handling a criminal trial," he said, adding that there had been a miscarriage of justice.
At this point, lead prosecutor Datuk V. Sithambaram objected to Shafee's line of submission and Karim asked Shafee to explain where Nazlan had gone wrong.
The hearing before Karim and the other two judges, Datuk Has Zanah Mehat and Datuk Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera, continues.