Apex court bins AG's appeal, High Court to hear Najib's house arrest bid

Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak will have his house arrest bid heard in the High Court, before a new judge, following the Federal Court’s decision that dismisses the attorney-general’s (AG) appeal this morning.

A panel of three judges, led by Chief Judge of Malaya Hasnah Hashim, found that despite the AG’s submission saying that the addendum order does exist, they found that its existence does not automatically render the document valid.

The addendum’s validity has to be determined at a substantive hearing, they said.

“It is pertinent to note that in the midst of the submission, there was a concession by the AG that the addendum existed. This concession has a great impact on the questions posed before us, in particular the questions relating to the existence of the disputed new evidence.

“The issue as to whether the addendum order is true or not is an arguable point to be ventilated in the substantive hearing of the judicial review.

“As of now, the addendum order exists and its status, vis-a-vis, validity or whether it is true, needs to be ascertained at the substantive hearing, which we do not consider it right or fair for us to express any view on this point, at this stage,” said judge Zabariah Yusof, who read the panel’s decision today.

Presiding with Hasnah and Zabariah today was Hanipah Farikullah.

The panel dismissed the AG’s appeal against the Court of Appeal’s decisions made on Jan 6 this year, which allowed Najib’s addendum bid to be heard in the High Court, as well as for an affidavit by Najib’s son Mohd Nizar and letter from the Pahang sultan affirming the royal addendum’s existence to be admitted as new evidence.

Earlier, Najib’s counsel Shafee Abdullah made a verbal application to the Federal Court to proceed with the judicial review hearing, as he was concerned the case may take a longer time to be disposed of if it is remitted back to the High Court.

“As the Chief Judge of Malaya, I have given strict instructions to all my judges throughout the country that matters should be disposed of within the nine or 12 months period,” said Hasnah to Shafee’s verbal application.

While Zabariah told Shafee that the rights of Najib or the respondents in his suit to appeal against any decision may be deprived if the Federal Court proceeds to hear the case, given that the apex court’s order holds finality.

This would be unfair in the interest of justice, she adds, before the panel directed the High Court to have their first case management on the matter next Monday (Aug 18), and for the hearing to be set one month after the date.

Seeking house arrest

Najib’s application, filed in April last year, where he sought the court’s mandamus order to compel the government and six others to confirm the royal addendum’s existence to allow him to serve the remainder of his prison sentence on house arrest, is still at the leave stage.

He also named the AG, Home Ministry, commissioner-general of the Prison Department, Federal Territories Pardons Board, Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform), and its Legal Affairs division director-general as the respondents in his application.

The High Court denied Najib’s leave application on July 3 last year. The Court of Appeal overturned the decision on Jan 6, which led to the AG’s appeal.

On Aug 23, 2022, a five-person apex court bench unanimously dismissed Najib’s appeal to quash his conviction related to RM42 million of SRC International funds. The former Pekan MP is serving his jail sentence at Kajang Prison.

He was sentenced to 12 years’ jail and fined RM120 million, until the Pardons Board reduced his sentence to six years and lowered his fine to RM50 million on Feb 2 last year.

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