Najib's judicial review on house arrest addendum postponed

 

The Kuala Lumpur High Court granted an application to stay all High Court proceedings over the existence of additional documents that could allow Najib Abdul Razak to serve the rest of his jail term under house arrest.

The court today granted the mutual stay application by the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) and the former prime minister’s lawyers.

Judge Hayatul Akmal Abdul Aziz allowed the stay application by the AGC, represented by senior federal counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambaly and Shafee Abdullah, who represented Najib after Ahmad Hanir informed the court of developments in an earlier proceeding involving the same additional document at the Federal Court this morning.

“The application for stay is granted,” said the judge who fixed July 3 for case management.

Ahmad Hanir earlier explained that the Federal Court had granted the leave application made by the attorney general to appeal regarding the existence of the document, for which a hearing has been set on July 1 and 2.

“The panel at the Federal Court has advised us to seek advice and apply for a stay of all matters pending in the High Court.

“Both parties (the AGC and Najib’s defence team) have discussed the matter and agreed that all proceedings in the High Court should be stayed pending the outcome of the appeal.

“We pray for all proceedings to be stayed pending the disposal of the said appeal,” said Ahmad Hanir.

Shafee then stood up and confirmed the matter.

Today’s proceeding was originally scheduled to hear the application filed by the AGC on Jan 20 for a gag order concerning the existence of the additional document.

House arrest ‘additional document’

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 additional document, 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.

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