Najib bids for house arrest at Court of Appeal

Najib Abdul Razak has turned to the Court of Appeal to serve the remainder of his six-year jail sentence under house arrest.

The former prime minister’s counsel Muhammad Farhan Muhammad Shafee confirmed the appeal linked to the existence of an alleged supplementary royal order.

“The notice of appeal was filed on July 9 and the Court of Appeal has set Oct 7 for case management,” the lawyer told Malaysiakini this afternoon.

Najib is appealing to compel the authorities to enforce the alleged royal addendum allowing the house arrest.

On July 3, the Kuala Lumpur High Court dismissed Najib’s leave application to proceed with the judicial review.

‘Mere hearsay’

Judge Amarjeet Singh ruled among others 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 claiming the existence of the addendum.

The judge noted that Najib never tried to get Zafrul to affirm the addendum’s existence from the onset.

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

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.

The action 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.

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