KUALA LUMPUR: The Federal Court will decide tomorrow whether to grant the Attorney-General’s Chambers (A-GC) leave to appeal against Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s bid for a judicial review of his house arrest order.
The purported addendum order is said to have been consented to by the 16th Yang di-Pertuan Agong, permitting the former Pekan member of Parliament to serve the remainder of his prison sentence under house arrest, in relation to his conviction for misappropriating RM42 million from SRC International Sdn Bhd.
The decision on the leave application will be made by a three-member panel of the Federal Court, chaired by the Chief Judge of Malaya, Datuk Seri Hasnah Mohammed Hashim, sitting alongside Datuk Zabariah Mohd Yusof and Datuk Hanipah Farikullah.
If leave is granted, the Federal Court will hear seven legal questions, which, according to the applicant, the A-GC, involve matters of public interest that have not previously been heard or decided by the country’s highest court before a ruling is made.
However, if the leave application is dismissed, the judicial review proceedings concerning the addendum order will proceed to be heard at the High Court.
On Jan 6, the Court of Appeal allowed the former Prime Minister’s appeal to initiate judicial review proceedings in the High Court, seeking an order to compel the government or six other parties to respond to and verify the existence of the addendum order, dated January of the previous year.
In the judicial review, Najib has named the Home Minister, Commissioner General of Prisons, Attorney-General, Pardons Board for the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Labuan, and Putrajaya, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform), the Director-General of the Legal Affairs Division in the Prime Minister’s Department, and the Government of Malaysia as respondents.
Among the reliefs sought in the judicial review is for all or any of the respondents to provide a copy of the principal decree by the 16th Yang di-Pertuan Agong concerning the reduction of his prison sentence and fine.
Najib is also seeking an order that, should the decree exist, all or any of the respondents must implement it by transferring him from Kajang Prison to his residence in Kuala Lumpur immediately to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest.
Najib has been serving his sentence in Kajang Prison since Aug 23, 2022, after being convicted of misappropriating RM42 million belonging to SRC International Sdn Bhd. He filed a petition seeking royal pardon on Sept 2, 2022.
The Pardons Board later reduced his prison sentence from 12 years to six years and his fine from RM210 million to RM50 million.
On July 3 last year, the High Court dismissed Najib’s application to initiate judicial review proceedings, prompting him to appeal the decision at the Court of Appeal.
The High Court ruled that four affidavits supporting Najib’s claims, including statements by Umno president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and vice-president Datuk Seri Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail, were hearsay and could not be accepted as evidence.
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