KUALA LUMPUR – Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s defence team will pursue his bid for house arrest, his lawyer said, after the high court here dismissed his leave application for a judicial review to produce and enforce a purported addendum order to serve the remainder of his jail sentence at home.
Lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah told reporters after proceedings today the defence would continue seeking house arrest for the former prime minister, who is currently in Kajang Prison.
“We will either appeal or take new action against the (respondents). We are still considering (which action) but we will definitely pursue this case,” he said.
In court, Shafee also briefly mentioned the defence’s intention to pursue the case.
Speaking to reporters later, he slammed the government for “hiding” the truth over the purported order allegedly issued by the 16th Yang di-Pertuan Agong before he completed his reign earlier in January.
“If you say there is no addendum (order), we won’t waste your time. If the government would dare to say, ‘there is no addendum (order),’ we can all go home and sleep. There is no need to make any more noise.
“Why isn’t the government daring enough to say this? So somebody is hiding a lot of things,” Shafee said.
Earlier today, high court judge Datuk Amarjeet Singh, in dismissing Najib’s leave application, said the affidavits in support of his application for the judicial review were all based on “hearsay”.
The judge said affidavits by Najib, as well as Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and vice-president Datuk Seri Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail, claiming that the alleged addendum order exists, were “bare statements” without verification from the source.
The source, according to Zahid and Wan Rosdy’s applications, was Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz, who had purportedly showed them a copy of the addendum order on his cell phone.
“In these circumstances, I hold that the affidavits (filed by Najib, Zahid and Wan Rosdy) are purely hearsay. As such, there can be no arguable case for further investigation at the substantive stage,” said the judge.
The judge also said there was no provision in any written law or the Federal Constitution that imposed a legal duty on the Pardons Board to confirm the existence of the addendum order, or to produce it, wherein the power of pardon was exercised.
Najib’s application, he said, could only be granted when a legal duty was imposed on an authority. However, at the leave stage, he said, the threshold for leave was not met or satisfied.
The 70-year-old former prime minister filed the leave application on April 1, seeking to compel the government to confirm the existence of the addendum order.
Najib also claimed that the addendum order was not announced by the board on February 2 and that the government was in contempt for not executing the supplementary decree.
Najib named the home minister, the commissioner-general of prisons, the attorney-general, the Federal Territories Pardons Board, the government, the law minister and the director-general of the legal affairs division in the Prime Minister’s Department as respondents.
Najib, who is currently serving his sentence for corruption in the SRC International case, had his prison term halved from 12 years to six and his RM210 million fine reduced to RM50 million by the Federal Territories Pardons Board earlier this year.
The board’s decision on January 29 was officially announced on February 2, but made no mention of the purported addendum order that he continue the remainder of his sentence under house arrest. – July 3, 2024