Najib drops house arrest bid, contempt application against Terrirudin

Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak has discontinued his bid for house arrest and his contempt application against former attorney-general Ahmad Terrirudin Salleh.

He filed the “Notice of Discontinuance” in both cases via Messrs Shafee & Co on April 3.

In a notice, dated April 2, his counsel said the former Pekan MP wished to discontinue the matters without liberty to re-file and without any order for costs, giving no further reasons.

This means he is not only withdrawing his appeal in the Court of Appeal but also relinquishing his right to re-file the case in the future.

His house arrest bid was officially struck out under Rule 9(3) of the Court of Appeal 1994 by Court of Appeal deputy registrar Adilah Mohtar on April 14, while his contempt application was officially recorded as struck out by deputy registrar Nuur Fatimahtul Zuhra Khairuddin under the same rule on April 9.

Malaysiakini has reached out to Najib’s lead counsel, Shafee Abdullah, for comments.

House arrest

Najib’s appeal for house arrest was filed on Dec 24 last year, just two days after the Kuala Lumpur High Court dismissed his judicial review application on Dec 22.

Judge Alice Loke, at that time, rejected his application after finding that the 16th Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s decree, which Najib claimed allowed him to serve the remainder of his jail sentence on house arrest, was invalid under the law.

Loke, in her judgment, said the addendum order did not comply with the procedures in Article 42 of the Federal Constitution, which clearly sets out the decision-making process for the powers of pardon to be exercised.

The exercise of the prerogative of mercy under Article 42 must be made by adhering to the procedures stipulated, she added.

Najib filed his judicial review application on April 1, 2024, where he named the government, Pardons Board, Terrirudin, and four others as respondents.

This came after the Federal Territories Pardons Board’s decision announced in February that year, which halved his sentence for the SRC International case from 12 to six years, and reduced his RM210 million fine to RM50 million.

Najib, in his application, claimed that there was a supplementary royal decree, dated Jan 29, 2024, that allowed him to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest and wanted the respondents to confirm its existence, produce its original copy, and enforce it.

This encountered a roadblock in the Kuala Lumpur High Court when judge Amarjeet Singh dismissed his leave application to pursue the case on July 3, 2024.

The decision was overturned by the Court of Appeal on Jan 6, 2025, and the appeals court’s ruling was upheld by the Federal Court on Aug 13, 2025.

Attorney-General Dusuki Mokhtar had confirmed that the addendum order existed during their appeal hearing at the Federal Court.

Contempt against Terrirudin

Meanwhile, Najib filed a contempt application against Terrirudin on May 21 last year, alleging that during his tenure as the attorney-general in 2024, he declined to reveal the existence of the royal addendum.

Based on a copy of the addendum dated Jan 29, 2024, and later an official letter from the Pahang ruler’s office in January this year, Shafee said Terrirudin had direct knowledge of the order by Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah.

However, despite this knowledge, Terrirudin had allegedly instructed his officers to mislead the Kuala Lumpur High Court into hearing a judicial review by claiming that the addendum order’s existence was mere speculation and “based on word of mouth”.

The Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC), in an immediate response, said the contempt application is “an abuse of process”, and that Terrirudin carried out his duties according to the Federal Constitution.

However, the Kuala Lumpur High Court, on Sept 4 last year, denied Najib leave to pursue the matter after finding that he failed to establish any prima facie to warrant a permission, and that his contention to cite the former attorney-general for contempt was based on mere speculation with no clear evidence.

The dismissal had resulted in Najib’s appeal, filed on Sept 12 the same year, before his recent retraction.

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