00:00High Court Judge Justice Lok Yiching has rejected former Prime Minister Najib Razak's oral application for her to recuse herself from presiding over his judicial review of a royal addendum.
00:13During case management today, Najib's counsel, Shafi Abdullah, raised an issue with a ruling made last week when Lok dismissed his client's bid to cite former Attorney General Ahmad Theriruddin Saleh for contempt of court.
00:26The concern centred on Lok's decision that the duty of candor does not apply at the leave stage, which requires parties to disclose all relevant information and material facts, even those that may weaken their case.
00:41Najib had sought leave to cite Theriruddin for contempt over his alleged role in suppressing a royal addendum that would have allowed him to serve the rest of his reduced sentence under house arrest.
00:53Shafi argued that since Lok had decided the duty of candor does not apply at that stage, it suggested a predetermination on a key matter in the judicial review based on two Court of Appeal cases.
01:07Lok, however, dismissed the request explaining that her earlier finding was confined to the leave application and should not suggest bias at the current substantive stage.
01:17The court fixed November 24th for the substantive hearing while Najib, convicted of misappropriating RM42 million from SRC International Sunduan Berhad, remains in Kajang prison since October 23, 2022, after his sentence was halved by the Federal Territory Spadence Board.
01:37Pan Yujiu Jiu, FMT.
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