KUALA LUMPUR, June 12 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak is now seeking to have Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram disqualified from leading the prosecution of his trial over alleged tampering of the Auditor-General’s audit report on 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), his lawyer confirmed today.
Najib’s lead defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said the application was filed today, adding that affidavits in support were also filed by Najib and former attorney general Tan Sri Apandi Ali.
“Yes, we filed an application today to disqualify Sri Ram from being the DPP in the case. The application is supported by two affidavits: YB Dato Seri Najib and Tan Sri Apandi. We served the application on the AGC today in the early afternoon,” he told Malay Mail in a WhasApp text message.
When asked for the grounds of Najib’s application, Shafee merely said: “Same grounds as recently exposed by TS Apandi.”
Trial is set to resume on June 15, but Najib’s legal team is expected to ask the High Court to hear Najib’s bid for disqualification of Sri Ram as lead prosecutor first.
“We will insist the court hears our application first as it affects integrity of the trial process,” Shafee replied, when asked if the trial would proceed as scheduled.
Najib is facing a joint trial with former 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy, with the latter accused of abetting the former prime minister in the alleged tampering of the 1MDB audit report.
When contacted, Jasmine Cheong who is a lawyer representing Arul Kanda confirmed that her client had not filed any new application in the case.
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