Najib not ‘shadow director’ at SRC International

Putrajaya 5 april 2021 Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Razak ariving at Palace of Justice in Putrajaya

by RAHIMI YUNUS / pic by TMR

DATUK Seri Mohd Najib Razak (picture) was not a “shadow director” at SRC International Sdn Bhd and, thus, there was a mistake to implicate the former prime minister with criminal breach of trust (CBT) over the misappropriation of RM42 million from the company, the Court of Appeal heard.

Lead defence counsel Tan Sri Dr Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said the trial judge in the SRC International case had erred in law to consider Najib as a shadow director of the company.

He said High Court Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali has adopted the civil law and common law concept of a shadow director from England in the SRC International case.

He said the interpretation of the term shadow director has exceeded the provisions under Section 402A of the Penal Code and it was not the same as in England.

“The appellant was not an insider at SRC as required under the Penal Code to have committed CBT,” he said at the appeal hearing in Putrajaya yesterday.

Muhammad Shafee said the prosecution did not establish the ingredients of the CBT charge for the defence to be called.

He argued that the prosecution must prove that Najib had control and was entrusted with the RM42 million for the CBT charges.

“The appellant submits that the trial judge committed a grave error by relying on the common law and stretching the language of Section 402A of the Penal Code beyond the natural and ordinary meaning of the provision.

“This has caused serious prejudice and injustice to the appellant,” he said.

Najib was found guilty of all the seven charges — one count of abuse of position, three counts of CBT and three counts of money laundering

— relating to the misappropriation of RM42 million belonging to SRC International.

The High Court sentenced Najib to 12 years in jail and fined RM210 million for abuse of power relating to the misappropriation of RM42 million.

He was also sentenced to 10 years of jail each for three CBT offences and 10 years of jail each for three money-laundering offences committed in the fund’s embezzlement.