KUALA LUMPUR – Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s lawyer, Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah has called for the resignation of Federal Court justice Tan Sri Ahmad Terrirudin Salleh, alleging that he misled the court regarding the existence of a royal addendum purportedly ordering the house arrest of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
Shafee argued that during judicial review proceedings that began in April 2024, the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC), led by Terrirudin at the time, remained silent about the royal addendum.
According to Shafee, this omission led to the dismissal of Najib’s application to enforce the addendum’s orders.
“When we were in court, High Court Justice Datuk Amarjeet Singh in deciding whether to grant leave (for judicial review), was forced to decide it (the existence of the addendum) is hearsay.
“It was mere suspicion, therefore he can’t accept. He was forced (to rule that way) because there was no response from the Attorney-General.
“The Attorney-General’s representative appeared. It has to be assumed he is the Attorney-General himself as he is the representative,” Shafee said during an appearance on the Trick Lama podcast.
The podcast is hosted by Big Boom Media Group’s editor-in-chief Terence Fernandez, group chief executive Datuk Zainul Arifin, and group executive director Datuk Ahirudin Attan, better known as Rocky Bru.
During the podcast, Shafee said the addendum by the Agong granting Najib the opportunity to serve his sentence under house arrest may be unusual but is not without precedent.
He insisted that those who want to keep Najib behind bars should not pull wool over the eyes of the public.
The lawyer cited the case of Kenneth Lee Fook Mun, the grandson of Tun H.S. Lee who was convicted of murdering Linda Lee Good Yew following an accident 24 years ago.
After receiving a royal pardon from the then-Agong, Kenneth, who was also Shafee’s client, had his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment. He served the balance of his imprisonment from his home.
While there have been arguments suggesting that local laws need to be amended to accommodate house arrest, Shafee pointed out that existing legal provisions can be utilised to enforce the Agong’s addendum.
Watch the full podcast on Spotify below.
Specifically, Shafee highlighted Section 43 of the Prisons Act 1995, which allows the Commissioner General of Prisons to release a prisoner on licence under certain conditions.
On the royal addendum, Shafee claimed that Terrirudin may have misled the court because the Attorney-General should have been aware of the document’s existence.
He pointed out that the document, issued by the 16th Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah, was addressed to the Attorney-General. Furthermore, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim recently acknowledged the document’s existence.
Instead of disclosing the addendum, Shafee inferred that the AGC may have actively concealed it.
He contended that the proper course of action would have been for the Attorney-General to acknowledge the addendum’s existence and argue its legality.
“This is the most honourable thing the Attorney-General could have done, but he chose the downtrodden way down the slippery slope and he’s now in the drain.
“This isn’t merely misleading the court, it’s a contemptuous criminal act.
“I would say strongly in the face of his misconduct, he should resign immediately as a Federal Court judge because he’s got no business holding another fountain of justice when he failed in the first,” Shafee added.
On February 2, 2023, Najib received a royal pardon that halved his 12-year prison sentence and reduced his fine from RM210 million to RM50 million.
The sentence stemmed from his conviction for abuse of power, criminal breach of trust (CBT), and money laundering involving RM42 million in funds from SRC International, a former subsidiary of the sovereign wealth fund 1MDB.
Najib later claimed there was a supplementary royal decree dated January 29, 2023, allowing him to serve the remainder of his six-year prison sentence under house arrest.
In April 2024, Najib filed a judicial review application at the Kuala Lumpur High Court to compel the government to enforce the royal addendum. However, the High Court dismissed the application.
The Court of Appeal, earlier this year, overturned the High Court’s decision, granting Najib leave for judicial review. – January 18, 2025