Federal Court strikes King's Counsel Laidlaw's appeal to act for Najib

PUTRAJAYA - The Federal Court here today struck out UK-based King's Counsel Jonathan Laidlaw’s appeal to be admitted as an advocate and solicitor to represent Datuk Seri Najib Razak in the SRC International Sdn Bhd (SRC) criminal case.

The unanimous decision to allow the application by four respondents to nullify the appeal by Laidlaw to appear for the former prime minister was made by the apex court’s three-member bench led by Justice Datuk Zabariah Mohd Yusof.

The four respondents are the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC), the Malaysian Bar, the Kuala Lumpur Bar Committee and the prosecution

The court also ruled that Laidlaw's bid to represent Najib in the SRC International case has been rendered academic after the Federal Court in August last year as well as March this year upheld Najib’s conviction as well as a 12-year jail sentence and RM210 million fine.

The court’s decision was delivered in an online proceeding.

The bench held that it was not in dispute that Najib's final appeal in August last year, as well as review application in March, has been disposed of with finality.

"Laidlaw's bid for admission was for the criminal proceedings of Najib in the SRC case, in the appeal, as well as the review. Thus, Laidlaw's appeal is academic now," Justice Zabariah said.

The other two judges on the bench were Datuk Nordin Hassan and Datuk Abu Bakar Jais.

Counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah acted for Laidlaw while senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan and deputy public prosecutor Datuk V. Sithambaram appeared for the AGC and prosecution respectively.

Lawyers Datuk Bastian Pius Vendargon and Datuk Gurdial Singh Nijar appeared for the Malaysian Bar and Kuala Lumpur Bar Committee respectively.

On July 21 last year, the Kuala Lumpur High Court rejected an application for Laidlaw to represent Najib in his final appeal against his conviction of misappropriating RM42 million belonging to SRC International Sdn Bhd.

Previously, Muhammad Shafee said that Laidlaw would represent Najib if there was a rehearing of his appeal pertaining to his SRC case in the Federal Court.

In 2020, the High Court sentenced Najib to 12 years in jail and fined him RM210 million. His appeal against his conviction and sentence was dismissed by the Court of Appeal in 2021.

Najib, 70, is serving his sentence in Kajang Prison after the Federal Court upheld his conviction, sentence and fine on Aug 23 last year.

The former prime minister then filed an application for a review of the Federal Court ruling and the new panel of the Federal Court dismissed his request on March 31. - BERNAMA