Hasty Trial Will Kill Justice, Justice hurried is justice buried

That was the title of an article by G Mahendran, a practicing Bar Council lawyer in The Sun in 2009 on the Bar Council website.

DS Najib has appointed a new defense team on July 25 for his JPP appeal at the Federal Court.

MMO reported the next day that Zaid Ibrahim will lead the new team to replace TS Shafee Abdullah.

Another important member is the famous senior criminal lawyer, Hisyam Teh Poh Teik.

The immediate reaction the next day was prejudicial and accused the move of being a delaying tactic.

A few months ago, someone close to DS Najib said, DS Najib had no such plans and stuck to TS Shafee.

DS Najib explained the change was to give a new perspective to the case.

The interpretation is that TS Shafee and his team may have started on the wrong foot.

Why Deny DS Najib’s Right To Get Justice?
A new team is needed to lower the temperature and focus on the law court in relation to the general court.

Zaid Ibrahim was reported by FMT on July 26 to request a delay.

Earlier, the hearing date was set for August 15 to 26.

It would be fair to allow the new team to prepare for the case.

He mentioned to get the case management date on July 29.

Presumably the application has been submitted.

Unfortunately, without allowing the new team to present the request to the court, NST reported on July 29 around 5pm the rejection of the Federal Court.

No delay will be allowed.

Perhaps the letter was issued a day earlier and received by the lawyer the next day on July 29.

Was the letter suspiciously leaked by some court official to the press?

The swift rejection by the court is strange and smelled of political conspiracy.

There is reason to suspect so.

Why are Dr Mahathir and his followers suddenly repeating the same narrative against Najib after a long silence?

This time it comes with an added twist to exploit Tok Mat Hassan’s statement which was deliberately quoted out of context.

It is said that Tok Mat made a statement to Asia Times that DS Najib should serve for some time before being pardoned.

The NST, which reported the rejection, is controlled by Mahathir’s corporate cronies.

But the suspicion of leakage can only be suspected.

The Law Must Not Only Be Sovereign, But It MUST Be Seen To Be Sovereign
Joe Fernandez of the New Malaysia Herald wrote recently:

Under the rule of law, the basis of the Constitution, the Federal Court cannot insist that DS Najib’s new team must proceed with the Appeal on 15 August.

That is the same as passing a Decree.

Based on the statement of the defense team in court, they are not ready.

They are confident that they will be ready when the time comes.

A lawyer, as an officer of the court, cannot mislead the court.

It doesn’t happen ‘even if it happens’ (so to speak).

There is no reason for the Federal Court to reject the defense team’s application.

They want the current date in court to be vacated and a new date set during case mention for case direction and case management.

The court has no reason to deny an application to adjourn the case until the defense team is fully prepared.

Can’t rush to judge.

Those in the know estimate that the defense force will take at least 6 months to prepare.

This is reasonable given that the case has been going on since 2018/2019 when the prosecutor rushed to court after GE14.

There must be enough time for the defense team to study the case.

So as to be able to connect the dots for completeness in writing for completeness in law.

Surely Tengku Maimoon has no motivation to send Najib to jail and bankrupt him hastily.

As said by a law commentator who claimed to be ‘amazed’:

“Give a chance…”.

“Too obvious…”.

Hopefully the Federal Court will be aware of the laws they govern
Malaysia’s judiciary, justice system and law enforcement are under international scrutiny.

The rejection of Queen Counsel Laidlaw only put Malaysia under the spotlight.

There will be international observers from the UK and other Commonwealth countries.

Why is only DS Najib targeted through the criminal court, IRB and civil court.

It’s like killing a fly with a battalion of soldiers.

While the real accusers were released and many were given protection as witnesses.

Without a justice system and a trusted and reliable judiciary, there will be no legal protection for investors and businessmen.

Say goodbye to foreign investors and local businessmen too.