Kula Lumpur (VNA) – Malaysia’s Court ofAppeal granted leave to former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak andhis lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah to commence a judicial review tochallenge the legality of the appointment for former Federal Court judge DatukSeri Gopal Sri Ram as a senior deputy public prosecutor in their trials.
A three-member bench comprising Justices Datuk HasnahMohammed Hashim, Datuk Lau Bee Lan and Datuk Has Zanah Mehat allowed theappeals brought by the duo to set aside the High Court dismissal of theirapplications to obtain leave to initiate the judicial review.
Hasnah fixed August 27 for case management of the judicial review cases beforethe deputy registrar of the High Court in Kuala Lumpur.
On February 20, the High Court of Malaysia dismissed Najib and MuhammadShafee’s applications for leave to commence a judicial review, prompting themto appeal to the Court of Appeal.
With the new decision of the Court of Appeal, the trial of Najib involving inthe 1 Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) will begin on August 28.
Najib is facing a total of 42criminal charges of corruption and money laundering at 1MDB and other state-ownedentities where he has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The 1MDB was set up by Najib in 2009 forsocio-economic development. However, US and Malaysian investigators found some4.5 billion USD was stolen, and around 1 billion USD sent to Najib’s differentaccounts.-VNA