Malaysia High Court sets Jun 5 date to decide if Najib’s legal bid for house arrest can proceed
Najib Razak claims that the previous king, in granting him a partial pardon, had also decreed that he could serve the rest of his jail sentence under house arrest.
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KUALA LUMPUR: Jailed Malaysian former prime minister Najib Razak will have to wait until Jun 5 to know whether he can proceed with his bid to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest, after the High Court fixed the date during a hearing on Wednesday (Apr 17) that was closed to the public and press.
Najib, imprisoned since Aug 23, 2022, for corruption offences, is trying to compel the government to produce an addendum order reportedly issued by Malaysia’s former king Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah of Pahang that allows him to serve the rest of his sentence at home.
Najib’s lawyers have produced an affidavit by a “crucial” witness as a cornerstone of their case, saying that this document supports Najib’s claim about the existence of such an addendum.
At the start of the Wednesday hearing, Najib's lawyers requested for the case to be heard in chambers - meaning not open to the public or the press - due to "certain material" disclosed in the latest affidavit that is "apparently sensitive", adding that the government’s lawyers agreed with this request as well.
Justice Amarjeet Singh granted the request but said he will present his decision in open court.
CNA has seen the affidavit dated as filed on Apr 9, signed by Malaysia Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. It was publicly accessible via the court website as of 11am on Wednesday.
But Najib’s lawyer Shafee Abdullah told media after the hearing that Justice Singh had issued an order to “seal” the affidavit. “If you got it in a leaking format, you take the risk,” he said.
When CNA pointed out that the affidavit was publicly accessible, Mr Shafee insisted that the court had “just ordered that it cannot be used”.
Several Malaysian news outlets have reported on the affidavit, naming Mr Ahmad Zahid, who is also president of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), and going into the contents of the document.
CNA contacted senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan, representing the Attorney-General in this case, to confirm if a sealing order had been issued.
Mr Shamsul said he was “not sure” if such an order was given, saying that this was an issue that needed to be checked with the court. He only noted that the court had asked Mr Shafee to apply for the order.
When contacted by CNA, a court interpreter who handled Wednesday’s hearing said she was not authorised to disclose “confidential” court matters, and asked to contact counsel instead.
Najib’s 12-year sentence had been reduced to six years in a partial royal pardon, a decision made at a January meeting which angered the nation but was ultimately acknowledged as a prerogative of the then-king.
But Najib, 70, now claims that Sultan Abdullah had also issued a “supplementary decree” to let him serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest.
If Najib is on Jun 5 granted leave to proceed with the judicial review, Mr Shafee said the government’s lawyers will have to reply regarding the existence of the addendum order.
When asked why the matter was so sensitive that it needs to be held in chambers, Mr Shafee said it involves a document signed by the king.
“Because it’s a question of Yang-di Pertuan Agong’s order. He gave it through an official channel. The official channel is supposed to enforce his order, (but) the order is not enforced,” he said.
“If the order is not enforced, the question of whether that order exists or not becomes sensitive, although we know it exists.”
This is also why he requested for the affidavit to be sealed, Mr Shafee said, asserting that the affidavit is about “telling the truth in court”.
“But telling the truth doesn’t mean it is not sensitive. It is extremely sensitive,” he added.
In his judicial review application filed on Apr 1, Najib said he had received information of the existence of this decree, and questioned why the government allegedly omitted it when announcing his partial pardon on Feb 2.
Prior to that, the six-member Pardons Board met on Jan 29 to decide on Najib’s pardon application, one day before Sultan Abdullah ended his reign as Malaysia’s monarch and handed the throne to Johor ruler Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar.
Senior government officials, who spoke earlier to CNA on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that Sultan Abdullah had issued a supplementary order on Najib’s house arrest before the king completed his five-year reign in end-January.
But the officials noted that the Attorney-General’s office had raised objections on the matter to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s administration because the issue of house arrest for Najib was not discussed during the Jan 29 meeting.
CNA was the first to break the news on Jan 31 on Najib’s partial royal pardon, citing sources including senior government officials.
Apart from halving Najib’s jail sentence from 12 years to six years, the Pardons Board also reduced his RM210 million (US$44.5 million) fine to RM50 million. The board is not legally required to give reasons for its decisions.
Najib has been jailed in Kajang Prison after the Federal Court upheld his conviction for criminal breach of trust, power abuse and money laundering over the misappropriation of SRC International funds. SRC International is a former subsidiary of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). He is slated to be released on Aug 23, 2028.
Najib, who served as PM from 2009 to 2018 and is the first premier to be jailed, still faces corruption charges in three separate cases, which observers have said are likely to continue despite his partial royal pardon.
