KUALA LUMPUR – The Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) will raise Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz’s claims of several “factual errors” in the affidavit supporting former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s house arrest bid.
“The AGC will bring this matter to the attention of the court,” it said in a brief statement today.
The legal advisor said this in response to Tengku Zafrul’s statement, which purported that Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s signed affidavit had several incorrect facts.
Although taking “no position in so far as the merits of the ongoing dispute”, Tengku Zafrul, who is international trade and investment minister, also said he intended to file his own affidavit in response to Zahid’s.
Zahid, who was named as a critical witness in Najib’s judicial review against the government, has backed the latter’s request concerning a royal supplementary order allowing his house arrest.
Zahid’s affidavit, filed at the high court on April 9, claimed that Tengku Zafrul had informed him of the existence of the addendum order dated January 29, during a meeting at his house in Country Heights, Kajang.
He said in his affidavit that Tengku Zafrul had shown him a copy of the order on his phone “which he personally photographed/scanned from an original copy as shown to the 16th Yang di-Pertuan Agong”.
Zahid also confirmed that the addendum order was genuine because it bore the royal seal and the signature of the former Agong.
News reports on Zahid’s affidavit, which was available online via the court’s e-filing system, were published after Najib’s counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah requested for today’s court proceedings to be held in chambers due to its “sensitive nature”.
When approached by the media later, Shafee insisted the affidavit was not publicly accessible and cautioned against reporting on its alleged content.
However, a source has since told Scoop there was no court order yet against the publication of the affidavit, as Shafee had merely made an oral application before the court earlier today.
On April 1, Najib filed a review application, alleging the existence of an addendum order issued by the 16th Yang di-Pertuan Agong dated January 29, which allegedly allowed the ex-prime minister to serve his remaining jail term under house arrest.
He named the home minister, the commissioner-general of prisons, 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 respondents.
The former prime minister, currently serving his sentence for corruption in the SRC International case, requested that the respondents confirm the addendum order exists – and if so, to execute the order, provide original copies of it and discuss any necessary reliefs the court deems fit.
The Federal Territories Pardons Board halved Najib’s prison sentence from 12 years to six at its meeting on January 29, where his fine was also lowered from RM210 million to RM50 million. – April 17, 2024