KUALA LUMPUR: The Court of Appeal has made damning findings in support of High Court Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali's decision to convict Datuk Seri Najib Razak in the SRC International Sdn Bhd case.
A three-member panel of Court of Appeal Judges has started reading out its findings with lead judge Datuk Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil reinforcing Nazlan's findings.
Nazlan had convicted Najib after finding the latter guilty of all seven charges on July 28 last year.
Abdul Karim said everything Najib did involving SRC funds had nothing to do with national interest.
He said Najib had actively ensured RM4 billion loan was given to SRC by the Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP) and later made no attempt to ensure money was repaid.
Instead, he said Najib had even disrupted attempts to locate and retrieve the money.
"All his actions in relation to the RM4 billion loan was not of national interest but for personal benefit.
"There was no national interest here," he said, adding Najib had in fact disrupted efforts to retrieve money that had been loaned out to SRC.
Abdul Karim said Nazlan had made the correct decisions in convicting Najib right from the stage of finding that the prosecution had established a prima facie case against the Pekan member of parliament at the close of the prosecution's case.
He said there was overwhelming evidence Najib had abused his power to get the Cabinet's approval to release government guarantees for the SRC loan.
The proceeding which is being conducted via Zoom hearing, saw Najib clad in a dark suit and striped tie listening intently as the judge read out their findings.
Najib was sentenced to 12 years' jail and fined RM210 million after he was found guilty of all seven charges related to the misappropriation of RM42 million of SRC International funds.
Najib, who served as Prime Minister from 2009 to 2018, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for abuse of power, and 10 years in jail for each of six counts of money laundering and breach of trust.
The 68-year old ended up as the first prime minister who was convicted and sentenced for corruption related charges.