SRC trial judge’s conflict of interest exposed

There appears to be no other alternative but to declare Najib’s trial a mistrial and for a new trial to be held. Short of that, the allegation that Najib has not been granted a fair trial due to judge Nazlan’s conflict of interest will not go away.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

At 1MDB’s board meeting of 6th September 2010, Maybank Investment Bank Berhad proposed that a Strategic Resource Company, called SRC for short, be established (SEE THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD MEETING BELOW).

During that period, Maybank’s group general counsel and company secretary was Muhammad Nazlan Mohd Ghazali (from 2005 to 2015).

Nazlan is the same judge in Najib Tun Razak’s trial involving the alleged misappropriation of RM42 million of SRC’s funds.

SRC was Maybank’s idea and Nazlan was the legal adviser of Maybank. And now Nazlan is the judge in the case involving Najib and SRC.

There are no doubts this is a conflict of interest and Nazlan should have recused himself from hearing the case.

Whether Najib is guilty or not is no longer the issue. The issue is whether due to Nazlan’s conflict of interest Najib’s trial is flawed and a mistrial should be declared.

Justice must not only be done but must also be seen to have been done. And in Najib’s SRC trial this has now been brought to question.

There appears to be no other alternative but to declare Najib’s trial a mistrial and for a new trial to be held. Short of that, the allegation that Najib has not been given a fair trial due to judge Nazlan’s conflict of interest will not go away.