Silence on leaked Nazlan ‘probe paper’ is deafening, says Puad
(FMT) – Umno Supreme Council member Puad Zarkashi has questioned the silence over a leaked document purportedly of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) investigation papers into Court of Appeal judge Nazlan Ghazali.
He claimed the people have demanded the MACC confirm the authenticity of the document since it was leaked last week.
Puad said many quarters had also questioned if Attorney-General (AG) Idris Harun had finished reading the investigation papers submitted by the MACC on May 21.
The Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) was reported to have said on May 23 that it was still examining the investigation papers submitted by the MACC on its probe into the appellate court judge.
“It has already been three months. Is this silence now a trend among the institutions of justice within our country?” he asked in a Facebook post.
Turning to Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, Puad asked if the Federal Court should also have taken into consideration MACC’s investigation papers when deciding on former prime minister Najib Razak’s application to adduce fresh evidence.
“The chief justice must be aware that ‘justice must not only be done but must also be seen to be done,” he said. “Unfortunately, everyone is silent.”
Puad’s comments come days after similar remarks by Umno secretary-general Ahmad Maslan, who called for the MACC to confirm the authenticity of the leaked document and urged the AGC to state if it intended to take further action following the anti-graft agency’s probe.
The leaked document, which had been widely shared on social media over the past few days, was said to be of the investigation papers prepared by the MACC and submitted to the AGC last May.
Last Tuesday, the Federal Court dismissed Najib’s application to adduce fresh evidence to prove that Nazlan was under a serious conflict of interest when presiding over the SRC trial in the High Court two years ago.
Nazlan, who was promoted to the Court of Appeal in February, was the judge who presided over Najib’s SRC trial in the High Court. In July 2020, he found the former prime minister guilty and sentenced him to 12 years jail and a RM210 million fine.
In his application, Najib said Nazlan should have recused himself from presiding over the trial as he was involved in deliberations and decision-making in the lead-up to the formation of SRC as a 1MDB subsidiary and the grant of loan and credit facilities for the benefit of SRC and 1MDB.
Nazlan was Maybank’s group general counsel and company secretary at the time.
