Najib Abdul Razak’s application to recuse former federal court judge Gopal Sri Ram from prosecuting the former prime minister’s 1MDB audit report tampering case will be heard on Jan 27.

The accused’s defence counsel Nur Syahirah Hanapiah said that the new hearing date was fixed by the Kuala Lumpur High Court today.

She said that the initially scheduled hearing of Najib’s recusal application before judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan this morning was vacated due to lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah being on medical leave.

“Shafee is on MC (medical chit) today because...