House arrest: Najib's son claims Pahang ruler told him addendum exists

Najib Abdul Razak's son Mohd Nizar has filed an affidavit affirming that the Pahang sultan told him about the existence of a royal addendum for the former premier to serve the remainder of his six-year jail sentence as house arrest.

The affidavit was filed two days ago prior to this afternoon's Court of Appeal hearing of Najib's appeal to be granted leave to commence judicial review for implementation of the alleged supplementary royal decree.

A source close to the matter confirmed with Malaysiakini that Nizar (above) filed the affidavit as part of an application to adduce additional evidence.

It is understood there is a court order restricting the public from gaining access to the document via online file search at the judiciary's official website.

According to the five-page affidavit that Malaysiakini sighted, Nizar claimed that the state royalty informed him of the addendum's alleged existence when he was at the Kompleks Keraf Diraja Tuanku Azizah’s launching ceremony in Pulau Keladi in Pekan, Pahang, on Aug 4 between 8pm and 9pm.

The Pahang sultan officiated the event. Nizar claimed that as the event was winding down, the state royalty signalled to him for a private discussion.

Nizar claimed the sultan told him he would be handed a written copy of the alleged royal addendum which was not signed or sealed, for “record-keeping”.

The Pahang exco member claimed the state ruler told him that despite the alleged royal addendum not being signed, the document would still be identical to the allegedly sealed one given to the government while at Istana Negara on Jan 29.

Nizar claimed that later on Aug 17, he met the sultan at Hyatt Regency Kuantan Resort in Teluk Chempedak and was given the alleged royal document.

He also claimed that the Pahang sultan allowed him to use the document for court purposes on Dec 2.

Time needed to verify

When the Court of Appeal convened this afternoon, Najib's lead counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah informed the three-person bench chaired by judge Azizah Nawawi that the legal team had filed the additional evidence application two days ago.

Shafee told the bench that the legal team had just served copies of the application to the government's legal representatives from the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC).

Senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan then said they needed time to go through the affidavit and verify the documents in the exhibit.

"We may or may not reply to the affidavit. For now, we need to verify the documents," the AGC representative told the appellate court.

The bench then adjourned Najib's appeal hearing to another date to be fixed.

Other affidavits

Najib is seeking to quash a lower court ruling that denied him leave to commence the judicial review to compel the authorities to enforce the alleged royal addendum allowing the house arrest.

On July 3, the Kuala Lumpur High Court dismissed Najib’s leave application to proceed with the judicial review.

Judge Amarjeet Singh ruled, among others, that all the affidavits claiming the existence of the royal addendum amounted to mere hearsay.

He ruled that Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Pahang Menteri Besar Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail’s affidavits did not show direct knowledge of the existence of the supplementary order.

Amarjeet said both affidavits only cited Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz claiming the existence of the addendum.

The judge noted that Najib never tried to get Zafrul to affirm the addendum’s existence from the onset.

‘Bare statements’

Amarjeet also ruled that Najib’s two affidavits supporting the judicial review leave action only contained “bare statements without mentioning the source and his belief of the existence of the addendum order”.

On April 1, while serving jail time at the Kajang prison over the RM42 million SRC International corruption case, Najib filed the judicial review leave application.

The action targeted seven respondents including the federal government, the home minister, the attorney-general, and the Pardons Board for Kuala Lumpur, Labuan, and Putrajaya.

The former Pekan MP is seeking a court order to compel the respondents to confirm this alleged addendum, which was purportedly issued on the same day as the main royal order on Jan 29.

The main royal order discounted Najib’s initial jail term of 12 years and an RM210 million fine to six years imprisonment and an RM50 million fine. - Mkini