Jailed Najib seeks court's permission to attend Parliament

Incarcerated former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak has filed a legal action to be allowed to participate in Dewan Rakyat proceedings.

The Pekan MP’s counsel Muhammad Farhan Muhammad Shafee confirmed that the judicial review was filed at the Kuala Lumpur High Court earlier this afternoon.

“Yes, we have just filed an application for judicial review around 1pm today.

“Effectively, it seeks for two things, firstly, for DSN (Najib) to have access to his parliamentary officers in order for him to do his work as an MP, and secondly, for him to attend Parliament on the scheduled dates,” the lawyer said when contacted.

On Monday (Oct 3), Najib’s lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah gave Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin until 12pm that day to respond to their appeal for the BN lawmaker to attend Parliament.

Otherwise, Shafee said, they would file a legal action to allow Najib to do so, alleging that the authorities declined the lawmaker’s request last week to be allowed to go to the Dewan Rakyat.

According to a copy of the judicial review leave application, Najib named the government of Malaysia, the home minister (who is not named), and the Prison commissioner-general (who is not named), as first, second and third respondents.

Via an affidavit in support of the legal action, the applicant claimed that from Sept 19 until today, he had been “adversely affected” by the respondents’ refusal to allow him access to his officers/aides for the purposes of parliamentary, legislative and constituent work.

Najib alleged that he was adversely affected by the respondents who declined him to have “access and attendance in Parliament on the scheduled dates of session/sitting that is currently scheduled to take place between Oct 3 to Nov 29, 2022”.

“The applicant has also from Sept 30, 2022, and continuing to date been adversely affected by the refusal of the third respondent to reply to a letter appealing to the right honourable minister on the decision of the first and third respondents,” he contended.

Among the reliefs sought are declarations that he is entitled to attend Parliament on the scheduled session dates and to have reasonable access to his officers/aides for parliamentary, legislative and constituent work.

Najib seeks an order of mandamus to compel the respondents to take necessary steps to allow him to partake in the Dewan Rakyat sessions, as well as have reasonable access to his said officers/aides.

The applicant is also seeking an order of certiorari to quash the respondents’ decision to bar him from going to Parliament as well as have reasonable access to his officers/aides.

Checks on the judiciary's online cause list showed that the judicial review is set for a hearing before Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Ahmad Kamal Md Shahid on Oct 12.

During a press briefing at the Kuala Lumpur Courts Complex two days ago, Shafee claimed the Prison Department last week did not allow Najib to attend the Dewan Rakyat sitting.

The lawyer claimed the Prison director-general, whose name was not mentioned, did not allow Najib to attend the Dewan Rakyat session due to security reasons.

Shafee said the issue of security is “odd” because Parliament is a more secure building than the court complex where Najib was brought to attend his court cases.

He remarked that the Prison authorities did not raise the issue of security when Najib was brought to the “hospital” - believed to be in reference to his visit to Kuala Lumpur Hospital and later to the Cheras Rehabilitation Hospital.

Still a lawmaker

Shafee also claimed that he wrote to Dewan Rakyat speaker Azhar Azizan Harun, who confirmed that Najib is still Pekan MP due to the lawmaker’s two ongoing legal applications.

He said one is for a separate apex court panel to review his conviction and 12-year jail sentence for the RM42 million SRC International corruption case, and the second is a bid before the Pardons Board for a royal pardon in the graft case.

The lawyer said they also wrote to Hamzah to appeal against the Prison authorities’ decision and that if they do not hear anything or get an unfavourable reply from the minister by 12pm on Monday, a judicial review would be filed.

Shafee said if a judicial review is filed, then it would be the first such legal action in Malaysia.

He said it could allow any lawmaker who was convicted and sentenced, but still has other pending due processes, to continue to serve his or her constituency.

The lawyer said this is crucial as Najib was not able to properly represent his constituency by raising his constituents’ concerns in Parliament.

He added that the lawmaker’s political aide was not even allowed to see him at Kajang Prison or even at the court complex.

“We have told the Prison (authority) that his (Najib’s) political aide should be allowed to visit him so the people in his constituency can be served, otherwise his constituents could not be served.

“Once in a while, he as MP should be allowed to be escorted to his constituency to hear grouses of the people there and speak with his aide on whether there are any problems,” Shafee said.

The lawyer pointed out that, at the moment, the most pressing thing was for Najib to be allowed to attend Parliament.

He suggested that the Prison authorities and the august House could work out an arrangement to ensure appropriate security measures.

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