Shafee meets judge as Najib moves to cite Kit Siang for contempt
(FMT) – Najib Razak’s lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah today met High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali over his client’s application to issue a show cause letter to DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang for comments related to the SRC International corruption trial.
Also included in the application is news portal Malay Mail Online, as well as its reporter Emmanuel Santa Maria Chin.
When met, Shafee declined to say what transpired in Nazlan’ chambers.
“We are not allowed to say anything. Zero disclosure,” he told reporters after a 45-minute meeting with Nazlan.
It is understood that a case management would be fixed after Shafee refiles the show cause letters following a recent Court of Appeal ruling.
This is the second time Shafee is meeting the judge. On Nov 29, he met Nazlan to obtain leave to cite Lim and the news portal for contempt of court.
Shafee had then told reporters he would appear before Nazlan on a date yet to be fixed because he wants court papers to be tweaked.
On Nov 11, Najib filed an ex-parte application under Order 52 Rule 2B of the High Court Rules.
The same day, Nazlan ordered Najib to enter his defence on the seven charges as he found that the prosecution had established a prima facie case against the accused.
Two days earlier, Malay Mail Online published Lim’s remarks under the title “Kit Siang: High Court decision on Najib and Tanjung Piai by-election outcome will indicate where Malaysia headed towards”.
In his affidavit in support of the application, Najib said his political rivals have launched a politically charged campaign against him and others during the previous administration.
Najib said he believed Lim’s “contemptuous” statement was created to put pressure on the trial court in deciding the case.
Najib said the article contained a form of threat, and intimidation, to the court that “global kleptocracy” would make a comeback in Malaysia if the court did not find him guilty.
“When the article is read as a whole, it amounts to serious contempt of court and is also an unwarranted attack on the judiciary,” he said.
Najib is facing six charges of money laundering and criminal breach of trust in the transfer of RM42 million to his account from SRC International.
He is also accused of abusing his power as prime minister by giving government guarantees on SRC International’s RM4 billion loan from Retirement Fund Inc.
