Judicial commissioner recuses herself from SRC suit against Najib due to her acquaintance with him

KUALA LUMPUR (June 1): A High Court judicial commissioner has today recused herself from presiding in the US$1.15 billion (RM4 billion) SRC International Sdn Bhd suit against former premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak and six others who are former office bearers of the company.

Judicial Commissioner Liza Chan Sow Keng, who called the case for case management for the first time, informed lawyers for SRC that Najib is her friend.

She said although they have not been in contact for many years, she is of the view that she should recuse herself from hearing the case to avoid any suspicion or accusation of bias or partiality.

Following this, a new case management has been fixed for the matter either before another judge or the court may assign it to a deputy registrar first.

The outcome of today's proceedings was confirmed by a counsel from the firm of Rosli Dahlan Saravana Partnership to theedgemarkets.com.

Chan is the second judge to recuse herself from a suit related to SRC or its former parent company 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB). Prior to her withdrawal, Judicial Commissioner Quay Chew Soon also had last month withdrawn from presiding over 1MDB's suit against Jho Low and three others including his father Tan Sri Larry Low Hock Peng.

On May 10, The Edge reported SRC had named Najib, along with former directors Datuk Suboh Md Yassin, Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, Datuk Mohammed Azhar Osman Khairuddin, Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi Tan Sri Ismee Ismail and Datuk Che Abdullah @ Rashidi Che Omar as defendants in the suit in relation to the RM4 billion loan given by Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP) on the company.

They are being sued for fraudulent breach of duties, fraudulent breach of trust, knowing receipt, dishonest assistance, conspiracy and wrongful conversion of property.

Najib is additionally is also being sued for tort of misfeasance in public office, abuse of power and breach of fiduciary duties in public office.

Meanwhile, checks by theedgemarkets.com revealed that Chan has also fixed June 23 as further case management for the suit by 1MDB against its former legal firm Wong & Partners.

Chan testified in JJ's case

Previously, Chan was also on the witness stand testifying in the trial of Aminah Abdullah, who is the mother of the late minister Tan Sri Jamaludin Jarjis, against her grandchildren.

She had acted as Jamaludin's lawyer in several deals. Her testimony suggests that Ivory Insights Sdn Bhd, controlled by the former minister, was used as a special purpose vehicle to acquire a stake held by RHB Bank in Dulang Ekuiti Sdn Bhd, which in turn owned an equity interest in independent power producer (IPP) Nur Power Sdn Bhd.

Ivory Insights was used to acquire the purported 29.6% stake in Dulang Ekuiti and Chan was not the sole purchaser of Dulang Ekuiti's stake.

The suit by the mother is scheduled for a decision on June 15.

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