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Tuesday, April 06, 2021

Shafee was rude (but probably correct) in criticising High Court judge Mohd Nazlan

FMT:

Be polite when criticising trial judge, appellate judge tells Shafee


Abdul Karim Jalil says Muhammad Shafee Abdullah could have used ‘erred in law’ and ‘misdirected himself’ to describe the trial judge’s verdict.

PUTRAJAYA: Court of Appeal judge Abdul Karim Jalil has reprimanded lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah and told him to use “polite words” when criticising High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali, who had found Najib Razak guilty of seven corruption charges in the SCR International case.

Karim, who is leading a three-member bench, said Shafee could use phrases like “erred in law and “misdirected himself” to show any weakness in Nazlan’s judgment.

“Please use polite words to show where he had gone wrong. No need to use phrases like ‘hopelessly incompetent’ and ‘poisoned his judgment’,” said Karim, who is sitting with Has Zanah Mehat and Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera.

Responding, Shafee said he “could not pull his punches” if that was what had happened.

At the start of Najib’s appeal against his conviction and sentence yesterday, Shafee had submitted that Nazlan, who ordered Najib to enter his defence on all the charges on Nov 11, 2019 in his oral grounds, stated that the prosecution had established a prima facie case.

However, in his written judgment after finding Najib guilty, the judge had included additional reasons why his client was asked to enter his defence, he said.

“It is highly improper and prejudicial to the accused,” he had said, adding that this was also serious misdirection by Nazlan.

This morning, Shafee said Nazlan’s additional reasons were illegal and showed that the judge was “clearly biased”.

“Could we say he was hopelessly incompetent resulting in a blunder?” he asked.

Counsel said the former prime minister did not get a fair trial, and that incorporating new points in the grounds of judgment and appeal records, Nazlan had “poisoned his judgment”.

He said the judge’s action was also a breach of natural justice as the defence could not build a full-fledged defence.

On July 28 last year, Nazlan sentenced Najib to 12 years’ jail and ordered him to pay a RM210 million fine after finding him guilty on seven counts of abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money laundering in relation to RM42 million belonging to SRC International Sdn Bhd.

The hearing continues.

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kt notes:

I recall mentioning that High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali, who had found Najib Razak guilty of seven corruption charges in the SCR International case, had in his post trial comment, excoriated Najib for not showing the least repentance for his crimes.

I had then queried why would a person appealing the case show any repentance when the aim of his appeal was to challenge the verdict of the chargers? Indeed, any repentance shown (virtually admitting his guilt) would have been fatal to his appeal.

In that post trial criticism by Judge Nazlan I had reckoned (too, in my layman's but commonsense opinion) the judge might have been prejudiced towards Najib. 



8 comments:

  1. During sentencing Jibby had not appealed yet. How was the judge to know he would appeal?

    Is “Remorse” the same as “Repent”?

    At the very least, without admitting guilt, he could have said sorry to the KWAP pensioners for being careless, made a mistake, did not check, spent their money on wifey’s Chanel goodies in Hawaii.

    Jibby’s defence was not that the money did not come from KWAP, but that he didn’t know that fact. He thought it was a royal Flush from Saudi.
    So say sorry to the pensioners lah, what’s so difficult.

    QUOTE
    Najib not remorseful after court found him guilty of corruption, says judge
    V Anbalagan - September 9, 2020

    KUALA LUMPUR: Najib Razak did not express any remorse after he was found guilty of seven counts of corruption in relation to RM42 million belonging to SRC International.

    Trial judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali said the former prime minister even maintained his defence of no knowledge of the RM42 million in his mitigation.
    UNQUOTE

    ReplyDelete
  2. Once the defendant has been found guilty, whether he shows any repentance, or not, is definitely an acceptable in the sentencing.
    A person who shows genuine regret may be given a lighter sentence, while an entirely hostile and unrepentant person will undoubtedly receive a harsher sentence.

    Ktemoc is definitely guilty of defending his Idol Najib to the very end , including accusing the trial judge of impropriety.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. don't talk rubbish. The judge's comments were made days after the trial when he criticised Najib for not showing repentance/remorse - as I mentioned why would a person appealing against the ruling be repentant when in the scheme of the appeal he was/will be showing the judge had been wrong

      Monster has a reckless habit of accusing ME OF BEING PRO THIS OR PRO THAT, WITHOUT ANY SUBSTANCE BUT MERELY BASED ON HIS PREJUDICED BLINKERED OPINIONS

      Delete
  3. Jibby was found guilty on Tuesday July 28, 2020 and sentenced on the same day. At that time no appeal had been filed. The judge cannot assume one would be filed when sentencing on the same day. What the judge may or may not have said a few days later is moot.

    Show a bit of remorse lah, for the KWAP pensioners who lost 42 million, and perhaps 4 billion, because of your "mistake", your eagerness to buy expensive Chanel jewelery for wifey. But no, not a single word of sorry to the poor pensioners.

    Your "defence" was "I Kena Tipu Kaw Kaw by all The People Around Me.

    QUOTE
    Ex-Malaysian PM Najib gets 12 years' jail in 1MDB-linked graft trial
    Ram Anand
    Malaysia Correspondent
    JUL 28, 2020

    KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's former premier Najib Razak was on Tuesday (July 28) sentenced to 12 years' jail and fined RM210 million (S$68.1 million) after being found guilty of all seven charges in the first of his five trials relating to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.

    High Court Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali found Najib, 67, guilty of one count of abuse of power, three counts of criminal breach of trust and three counts of money laundering regarding the misappropriation of RM42 million from SRC International, a former subsidiary of 1MDB.

    "I find the accused guilty and convict him on all seven charges," said the judge.

    During sentencing Justice Mohd Nazlan meted out 12 years jail and a RM210 million fine for abuse of power. Najib was given 10 years jail for each of the three counts of criminal breach of trust. He also received 10 years jail for each of the three money-laundering charges.
    UNQUOTE

    ReplyDelete
  4. "Judge Nazlan I had reckoned (too, in my layman's but commonsense opinion) the judge might have been prejudiced towards Najib."

    Methinks Ktemoc is highly prejudiced too, in the opposite direction...

    ReplyDelete
  5. KT is confused.

    After hearing all the evidence from both sides, the judge decided on a verdict of guilty.

    That is not PREjudice. That is POSTjudice.

    postjudice (plural postjudices): An opinion or bias acquired after the fact, or after a given event.

    prejudice:
    preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The judge's comment on Najib's no remorse was made a few days after the completion of the trial including the sentencing. That's prejudice especially when Najib gave notice of appeal

      Delete
    2. as Shafee mentioned, that incorporating NEW points in the grounds of judgment and appeal records, Nazlan had “poisoned his judgment”.

      Delete