Court bins Najib's leave action over house arrest

Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak failed to get leave to proceed with his judicial review to be allowed to serve the remainder of his jail sentence under house arrest.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court this morning dismissed Najib’s legal action over the existence of an alleged royal supplementary order permitting house arrest.

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

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

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

The judge noted that judicial review leave applicant Najib never tried to get Zafrul to affirm the addendum’s existence from the very onset.

Najib to appeal

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

“I find that both affidavits are, at the highest, pure hearsay,” the civil court judge ruled, before dismissing the action with no order as to costs.”

Najib’s lead counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah then informed Amarjeet that they would be filing an appeal to the Court of Appeal.

The lawyer also indicated that they are considering whether to file a separate legal action over the alleged royal addendum, namely in the form of a writ of summons at the civil court.

Senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan and Ahmad Hanir Hambaly @ Arwi acted for the federal government.

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.

Najib’s judicial review 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 RM210 million fine to six years imprisonment and RM50 million fine.

Najib also seeks a court order to compel the respondents 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”.

He 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.

Najib claimed 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 Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

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

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