KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Razak is arguing that the Court of Appeal (COA) and High Court had wrongly convicted and sentenced him to 12 years in jail and RM210 million fine over the SRC International case after applying their own logic or rationale in evaluating the evidence against him.
The former prime minister said he was aggrieved by the serious errors in fact and law made by judges in both courts when finding him guilty of all seven charges of abuse of power, criminal breach of trust (CBT) and money laundering involving RM42 million of SRC International funds.
He argued that the entire grounds of judgment by both courts contained serious errors as the judges had relied on findings that were not fully proven and did not reflect on the totality of evidence against him.
Najib contended that the COA had made a mistake by rejecting his defence that the RM42 million which flowed into his personal bank accounts was not from SRC funds but leftover from the US$800 million (RM3.2 billion) donation he received from Arab royalty between 2011 and 2013.
This finding, he argued, was not borne out of any hard evidence before the court.
He said both courts had also made a mistake in finding that he used the RM42 million for his own personal benefit and to enhance his political position by rejecting his defence that the money had actually been used for Corporate, Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes.
Najib said the courts had erred by rejecting his defence that he had no knowledge that the funds which entered into his accounts were from SRC.
He said the courts should have considered his defence that he was deceived by fugitive financier Low Taek Jho @ Jho Low and others, including the management of SRC.
The Pekan member of parliament said both courts had also erred in holding that Jho Low and his associates were acting as his minions, answering his calls and obeying his instructions to use SRC's funds for his own purpose.
Najib said this in his petition of appeal to the Federal Court against the COA and High Court decisions which was filed by Messrs Shafee and Co yesterday.
The 20-page petition contained 94 grounds which Najib argued should prompt the Federal Court to overturn his conviction and set him free of all seven charges.
Najib, 68, also argued that his right to a fair trial and equitable trial had been denied as the prosecution had failed to make necessary pre-trial disclosure of unused material capable of undermining their case.
On his power abuse charge, Najib said the COA had made a mistake in holding that the charge under Section 23 of the Malaysian Anti Corruption Act 2009 had been proven beyond reasonable doubt at the end of the defence case.
He argued that both courts were wrong to conclude that he had abused his power as the then prime minister just because he attended Cabinet meetings where approval of government guarantees for loans to SRC were issued because he had an interest in those decisions.
The former Umno president said the COA had made another mistake in concurring with the findings of the High Court that he had a personal interest in SRC even though he was there purely in his official capacity arising from his position as Advisor Emeritus, Finance Minister and Prime Minister at that time.
He argued that the COA was also wrong to conclude that the High Court judge had correctly analysed and evaluated evidence when deciding that he had used SRC funds for his personal benefit.
On the CBT charges, Najib said the COA had made another mistake by finding that he wanted to be in full control of SRC and that was why no one else from the Ministry of Finance (MOF) was appointed into the company.
On the money laundering charges, Najib said the COA had erred by affirming the High Court's findings that the evidence clearly showed that he knew or had reason to believe that the funds entering his personal bank accounts were proceeds from unlawful activities.
He said the court had wrongly found that he failed to take steps to ascertain whether or not the funds were the proceeds of unlawful activities and that this amounted to wilful blindness.
He said the judges were wrong to conclude that his Arab donation defence lacked credibility and was nothing but a concoction.
The crux of the SRC case against Najib is that he had used his position as the then prime minister to secure a RM4 billion loan from the Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP) for SRC.
He had then claimed it was done for national interest as SRC needed to get involved in strategic investments.
However, the prosecution's case against Najib is that RM42 million from the loan was eventually pumped into his personal bank accounts.
Najib has since filed an appeal against his sentence and conviction at the Federal Court after the Court of Appeal unanimously upheld the High Court's verdict on Dec 8 last year.