Apex court to decide on AG's leave to appeal Najib's addendum

 

The Federal Court will decide tomorrow on the attorney-general’s (AG) leave application to appeal against the existence of a royal addendum in the case involving former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak.

A three-member bench comprising Chief Judge of Malaya Hasnah Hashim and Federal Court judges Zabariah Yusof and Hanipah Farikullah will deliver the verdict at 9am.

On March 24, the panel heard submissions from Attorney-General Dusuki Mokhtar and Najib’s lead counsel, Shafee Abdullah, on the AG’s leave application.

On Jan 6, in a 2-1 majority decision, the Court of Appeal remitted the case on Najib’s claim of the existence of an addendum purportedly allowing him to serve the remainder of his six-year prison sentence under house arrest to the High Court to be heard on its merits.

This decision overturned the High Court’s earlier ruling, which had dismissed Najib’s application for leave to commence a judicial review regarding the alleged additional document.

The AG had filed the leave application against the Court of Appeal ruling. An applicant must obtain leave to proceed with the appeal to the Federal Court.

Order sought

Najib, 71, is seeking a mandamus order compelling the respondents to confirm and disclose the existence of the addendum dated Jan 29, 2024.

He named the home minister, commissioner-general of orisons, AG, Pardons Board for the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Labuan, and Putrajaya, minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform), director-general of the Legal Affairs Division in the Prime Minister’s Department, and the Malaysian government as respondents.

The former Pekan MP also sought an order that, should the additional document be proven to exist, all respondents or any one of them should enforce it immediately and transfer him from Kajang Prison to his residence in Kuala Lumpur to serve the remainder of his sentence.

On July 3 last year, High Court judge Amarjeet Singh dismissed Najib’s application for leave to initiate a judicial review, ruling that the four affidavits submitted in support of his claim, which included statements by Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Umno vice-president Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail, were hearsay and inadmissible as evidence in court.

Najib has been serving his sentence at Kajang Prison since Aug 23, 2022, following his conviction for misappropriating RM42 million from SRC International Sdn Bhd.

The High Court initially sentenced him to 12 years in prison and fined him RM210 million, a decision which was subsequently upheld by the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court.

However, his petition for a royal pardon on Sept 2, 2022, resulted in the Pardons Board halving his prison sentence to six years and reducing his fine to RM50 million.

- Bernama