PETALING JAYA: Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has rejected claims that he had influence over the judges involved in Najib Razak’s SRC International trial.
At a press conference, Mahathir said he never interfered in the appointment of judges during his tenure when Pakatan Harapan (PH) was in power in Putrajaya.
He was asked to comment on speculation that the Federal Court bench led by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat had been biased as she was appointed during Mahathir’s tenure.
“I appointed the Chief Justice because I was prime minister. I had no choice. This was the name put forward, I just approved. I never changed (the appointments).
“To say I have influence over the courts (is not right). There were three courts, the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court. There were nine judges, all having the same opinion.”
Mahathir said Najib’s SRC International case took four years and that the country had never witnessed a case like this before.
“Even in Anwar’s case (first sodomy trial), it took nine months, this (Najib’s case) took four years.
“He was given every chance to defend himself, but what did he do? All he did was to say ‘we have to recuse this one, recuse that one, this is unfair’.”
“What unfair? It was his word against all the documents,” Mahathir said, adding that Najib failed to prove the evidence against him was wrong.
On Tuesday, Najib was ordered to start his jail term by the Federal Court after it upheld his conviction on seven counts of money laundering, abuse of power and criminal breach of trust (CBT) in the SRC International case.
He was sentenced to 12 years’ jail and fined RM210 million, or five years’ jail in default.
Najib’s lawyers have said that he was not getting a fair trial citing the withholding of evidence and failed bids to adduce new evidence for his case.
Meanwhile, Mahathir also denied rumours that he had met with Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob recently.
“It’s a lie. I did not meet Ismail,” he said, adding he had only met Ismail before he became prime minister to give him some advice.
“We have not met at all after he became prime minister.”
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