Ex-Federal Court Judge Gopal Sri Ram Teams Up With Najib's Lawyer To Defend Sam Ke Ting
Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram and Harvinderjit Singh will represent Sam Ke Ting without any charges in the case.
By Yap Wan Xiang — 06 May 2022, 10:33 AM
Former Federal Court judge Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram will lead the defence of Sam Ke Ting's case, in which she was sentenced to six years' jail and fined RM6,000 for reckless driving
According to Free Malaysia Today, Sri Ram will be joined by lawyer Harvinderjit Singh, who is the legal counsel of Datuk Seri Najib Razak, and Sam's current lawyer Faizal Mokhtar.
"She met Sri Ram at his office today (5 May) and he has agreed to conduct the appeal for her," said Harvinderjit, who also attended the meeting.
The Star reported him as saying that they will be providing their services pro bono (without charge) to appeal Sam's sentence.
He said the appointments were finalised yesterday, 5 May.
During the case management on 11 May, Harvinderjit said he will inform Court of Appeal deputy registrar Khairi Haron about their appointments
The new defence team lineup will also ask for appeal records in preparation for the case, adding that a petition of appeal will be filed after that.
"We need to file the petition of appeal (on where the High Court has erred) and if need be, to add questions of law to be argued during the appeal," Harvinderjit told Free Malaysia Today.
Other than being the former Federal Court judge, Sri Ram is also the senior deputy public prosecutor (DPP) in criminal cases against Najib and his lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.
The duo tried to disqualify 78-year-old Sri Ram as the senior DPP in their 1MDB and RM9.5 million money laundering case, respectively, but failed to do so after the Court of Appeal dismissed their appeals in November 2021, reported New Straits Times.
He was appointed to lead the prosecution team in Najib's 1MDB case by then Attorney General (AG) Tan Sri Tommy Thomas because the former is an all-round barrister who has an unrivalled experience in criminal law.
Sam was sentenced to jail by the Johor Bahru High Court on 13 April in the 'basikal lajak' (modified bicycle) case that resulted in the death of eight teenagers in an incident five years ago
Sam, who was 22 years old at the time, was charged with committing the offence on Jalan Lingkaran Dalam, Johor Bahru at 3.20am on 18 February 2017.
She was acquitted twice by the Magistrates' Court but the Johor Bahru High Court ruled last month that the lower court had erred in accepting her defence statement without her being under oath.
She stayed a few nights in prison before being granted bail and a stay of execution.
