Najib appeals High Court’s refusal to review house arrest ‘addendum’

 

Najib Razak alleged that former king Al-Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah issued a supplementary decree on Jan 29 converting his jail term to house arrest. (Bernama pic)

PUTRAJAYA: 

Najib Razak has appealed the High Court’s refusal to commence judicial review proceedings over a purported royal decree allowing him to serve the remainder of his jail term under house arrest.

His solicitors, Shafee & Co, filed a notice of appeal in the Court of Appeal last week.

The matter has now been fixed for case management on Oct 7.

When contacted by FMT, senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan confirmed that the Attorney-General’s Chambers had been served with a copy of the notice of appeal.

Najib’s solicitors must now prepare and file a record of appeal containing the High Court’s grounds of judgment and a memorandum of appeal setting out where the judge fell into error in coming to his decision.

On July 3, Justice Amarjeet Singh ruled there was no arguable case to warrant a full hearing of the judicial review application.

The judge said the statements contained in the affidavits filed by Najib, Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and its vice-president Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail were hearsay and inadmissible as evidence.

In his affidavit, Zahid had claimed that Tengku Zafrul Aziz had shown him a copy of the purported addendum order on his phone during a meeting.

Meanwhile, Wan Rosdy alleged that Tengku Zafrul had told him that the document was issued by former king, Al-Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah.

Amarjeet said Najib’s own affidavits merely contained bare statements about the existence of the purported supplementary order without identifying the source of his information.

The court also said the trio had relied on Tengku Zafrul as the source of their knowledge.

Earlier this year, the Federal Territories Pardons Board (FTPB) halved Najib’s prison sentence in his SRC International case from 12 years to six, and reduced his fine from RM210 million to RM50 million.

He is currently serving his sentence in Kajang prison.

In the application filed on April 1, Najib claimed that Al-Sultan Abdullah had issued the supplementary decree during a meeting of the FTPB held on Jan 29, a day before his term ended.

Najib alleged the supplementary decree was not announced by the board on Feb 2 and that the government was in contempt for not executing it.

He wanted the court to compel the government to execute the supplementary decree, if it exists, to place him under house arrest. - FMT