KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram will continue to lead the prosecution teams for criminal cases against Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.
This after the Court of Appeal in its unanimous decision, dismissed the duo's appeal to set aside the High Court's decision in dismissing their judicial review application to challenge the legality of Sri Ram's appointment as head of the prosecution team in their cases.
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.
Judge Datuk Yaacob Md Sam when reading the judgement, said the High Court judge had not erred in dismissing the appellants' judicial review which could warrant their intervention.
"We are of the view that Sri Ram is more than qualified as a fit and proper person to be appointed as senior deputy public prosecutor (DPP) under Section 376(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC).
"We are of the opinion Section 376(3) is a stand alone provision for anyone who is considered a fit and proper person to be appointed as DPP or senior DPP.
"The section was amended to allow the Attorney-General (AG) to appoint a senior DPP so that the conduct of prosecution is handled by an experienced DPP commensurable with the complexity of the case assigned," he said.
The proceedings was held via Zoom meeting.
Yaacob said it was clear the the parliament, in amending Section 376(3), had intended to give power to the AG to appoint and designate a fit and proper person as a senior DPP.
Yaacob said the court agreed with the High Court judge that there was nothing in Section 376(3) which provides that a fit and proper person to be DPP must come from the judicial and legal services or public servant.
"There is no such requirement in law... There is also no requirement for the appointment made under Section 376(3) be gazetted in the federal gazette."
Touching on the issue of conflict of interest as alleged by the appellants, Yaacob said the court agreed with the High Court judge that the issue has been dealt with at the high court as well as in another of Najib's case at the Court of Appeal.
The other judges who presided were Datuk Lee Heng Cheong and Datuk Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali.
The court also did not order any cost as the case involved public interest.
Shafee later applied to the court to set aside the RM10,000 cost ordered by the High Court.
Senior Federal Counsel Shamsul Bolhassan did not object to the application and left it to the court to decide.
The court allowed the application.
Earlier, moments before the proceedings started, Shafee changed his Zoom's background to the iconic Statue of Liberty while waiting for the proceedings to start.
His action drew laughter from the participants, where some of them asked whether Shafee would become a newsreader.
Shafee is currently in New York to see his son who is settling in at the New School Parson for higher studies, from Oct 27 to Nov 30.
On Oct 25, High Court Judge Datuk Muhammad Jamil Hussin allowed the senior lawyer to temporarily hold on to his passport until Dec 3.
Shafee, 69, is facing two counts of money-laundering relating to a RM9.5 million payment he received from former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
He was also charged under the Income Tax Act with two counts of making false declarations to the Inland Revenue Board for not including the RM9.5 million in his tax filing, for the years 2013 and 2014.
He was released on a RM1 million bail.
