KUALA LUMPUR – Today’s open-court proceedings in Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s case, in which he is seeking a government order to serve the remainder of his prison sentence under house arrest, were held in chambers due to the sensitive nature of an affidavit submitted by a critical witness for the application.
It was reported that Najib’s counsel, Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, made the request before judge Datuk Amarjeet Singh, before Najib’s legal challenge began at the Kuala Lumpur High Court today.
Amarjeet allowed the application to bar the media from covering his judicial review application seeking house arrest for the remainder of his six-year jail sentence.
Shafee said the details disclosed in the latest affidavit appear to be sensitive.
The lawyer also said that senior federal counsels Shamsul Bolhassan and Ahmad Hanir Hambaly, who appeared for the Attorney-General’s Chambers, had no objections to having the case heard in chambers.
The judge then ordered everyone in the public gallery, including journalists, to leave the courtroom.
According to checks on the court’s e-filing system, a copy of the affidavit believed to be the one referenced by Shafee today is available for purchase.
Later, when approached by the media, Shafee insisted that the affidavit was not publicly accessible and cautioned against reporting on its alleged content.
“The court has given an order (for the affidavit) to be sealed. If you (media) got the document through a leak, then you take the risk. (If) you want to get in trouble, you go,” he said when pressed about the availability of the document online.
“The papers have been sealed. Whether or not it has been leaked before is another story, but now that the (court) order has been made, don’t take the risk. What for? That’s my advice.”
He also explained that today’s proceedings had to be conducted in cambers due to how the issue revolves around an order issued by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, which the affidavit produced today supposedly upholds.
“The Agong gave (the order) through official channels, which are supposed to enforce the order. If the order is not enforced, the question of whether or not the order exists becomes sensitive, although we know that it exists.
“The affidavit is telling the truth in court. Telling the truth does not mean it’s not sensitive, it’s extremely sensitive,” he added.
Besides that, Shafee confirmed that his client’s judicial review application will continue to be heard on June 5, during which proceedings will also be held in chambers.
On April 4, Najib’s judicial review bid was postponed to today after Shafee informed the court that he needed to obtain one more signature for a “critical” affidavit supporting Najib’s application.
Najib, 70, filed the judicial review application on April 1, alleging that there is an addendum order issued by the 16th Yang di-Pertuan Agong dated January 29 allowing Najib to serve his remaining jail term under house arrest.
In the application, he named the home minister, the commissioner-general of the Prisons Department, the attorney-general, the Federal Territories Pardons’ Board, the government, the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform), as well as the director-general of the legal affairs division in the Prime Minister’s Department, as the defendants.
Najib requested the respondents confirm the addendum order exists – if so, to execute the order, provide original copies of it, and discuss any necessary reliefs the court deems fit.
The former Umno president was convicted by the high court in July 2020 of corruption involving RM42 million of funds belonging to SRC International, a former subsidiary of 1Malaysia Development Bhd.
He was sent to serve jail time in Kajang Prison after the Federal Court maintained the decision to hold him guilty of his SRC trial on August 23, 2022. He was to serve for a total of 12 years.
However, on February 2, the Pardons Board secretariat for the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Labuan, and Putrajaya announced Najib’s sentence was halved from 12 years to six, along with a decrease in his fine from RM210 million to RM50 million.
Failure to pay the fine would result in an additional year of imprisonment for Najib. – April 17, 2024