'Critical witness' to back Najib's bid for house arrest

A “critical witness” is set to file an affidavit to support former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak's judicial review seeking to serve house arrest for the remainder of his six-year jail sentence.

The former finance minister's lead counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah confirmed this when approached by the media after in-chamber case management of the matter at the Kuala Lumpur High Court this morning.

However, the lawyer did not reveal who the “critical witness” was.

It is understood that during the chamber matter, Shafee informed judge Amarjeet Singh of the “critical witness” and that the person was currently in Mecca, hence Najib's legal team needed more time to wait for the witness to return and affirm the affidavit.

Amarjeet set April 17 to hear Najib's application for leave to commence the judicial review for implementation of an alleged supplementary order by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong linked to the partial pardon that halved his jail sentence to six years and discounted his fine from RM210 million to RM50 million.

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.

House arrest provision

According to Najib's affidavit in support of his judicial review, the former Pekan MP claimed that the Agong's main royal order allowing the partial pardon was accompanied by a supplementary royal order containing the house arrest provision.

The former Umno president is seeking a court order to compel the home minister, the attorney-general, the Pardons Board, the federal government, and a few other respondents to confirm this alleged addendum in the partial pardon.

According to a copy of the judicial review bid, Najib claimed that the Agong issued the addendum on Jan 29, the same day as the main partial pardon order.

Najib is seeking a court order to compel the respondents to not only confirm the royal addendum but also to “forthwith remove the applicant from Kajang prison facility to his known residences in Kuala Lumpur, where the applicant would continue to serve his imprisonment sentence under house arrest”.

Najib also seeks a mandamus order to compel the respondents to provide the original version of the royal addendum, costs, and any other relief deemed fit by the court.

He claimed in his affidavit to support the judicial review that his rights had been adversely affected and infringed upon by the respondents in ignoring his inquiries over the alleged royal addendum.

He claimed that the respondents’ disregard of his request constituted a direct intrusion of his basic rights under the Federal Constitution and also amounted to direct contempt of the Agong.

Najib further alleged that the respondents are trying to conceal the existence of the alleged royal addendum.

‘Not on the list’

Back on March 4, Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail assured that Najib is not on the list of prisoners who will be serving time via home arrest.

The minister told Malaysiakini that only prisoners serving less than four years of jail time, senior citizens, pregnant women and people with disabilities will be on the home detention list.

"Najib is not included in that list," he said.

Earlier, Harian Metro reported that Putrajaya's newly proposed home arrest for prisoners was intended to reduce overcrowding in jails, not to be abused by convicted leaders.

Saifuddin reportedly dismissed the claim that the home detention policy was meant to allow Najib to serve his remaining prison term in the comfort of his home as ill-intentioned.

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