PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has fixed Nov 8 to decide on a legal bid by Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah to recuse Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram as the lead prosecutor in their respective court cases.
A three-man bench led by judge Datuk Yaacob Md Sam fixed the date after hearing submissions conducted via Zoom today.
The former prime minister and his lawyer are appealing against a civil High Court's decision which dismissed their judicial review application to challenge the legality of Sri Ram's appointment as head of the prosecution team in their cases.
The other judges who presided were Datuk Lee Heng Cheong and Datuk Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali.
During the proceeding, Shafee represented Najib, while lawyer Harvinderjit Singh represented Shafee.
Meanwhile, senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan appeared for the respondents namely the government, the Attorney-General (AG) and Sri Ram.
On August 28, last year, the Kuala Lumpur civil High Court dismissed the judicial review applications brought by Najib and Shafee ruling that the appointment of Sri Ram, as senior DPP by then AG Tan Sri Tommy Thomas, was valid.
Najib and Shafee had separately filed for the judicial review in December, 2018, seeking an order to revoke or recuse the appointment of Sri Ram by stating that his letter of appointment was invalid.
They also seek a declaration that there was a conflict of interest in Sri Ram's appointment and requested for an order to prohibit Sri Ram from leading the prosecution.
Sri Ram is the lead prosecutor in Najib's 1Malaysia Development Bhd-linked cases as well as Shafee's RM9.5 million money laundering case.
The cases are ongoing at the High Court.
