Court Grants Najib's House Arrest Appeal
The Kuala Lumpur High Court will now hear the merits of the incarcerated former prime minister's judicial review.
By Sadho Ram — 06 Jan 2025, 01:56 PM
The Court of Appeal has today, 6 January, allowed incarcerated former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak's house arrest appeal
A three-person bench, comprising Azizah Nawawi, Azhahari Kamal Ramli, and Mohd Firuz Jaffril, in a split 2-1 decision ordered the Kuala Lumpur High Court to hear the merits of Najib's judicial review.
According to Malaysiakini, bench member judges Azhahari and Firuz are part of the majority ruling, while bench chairperson Azizah delivered the dissenting ruling not to allow the appeal.
In reading out the majority ruling, Firuz noted there was no rebuttal from the government challenging the existence of the alleged royal addendum allowing Najib to serve the remainder of his term at home.
Firuz says Najib demonstrated an arguable case.
Earlier, senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan, representing the government and other respondents, had told the court that the addendum was never discussed during the Pardons Board's meeting
Shamsul — who is appearing for the Home Ministry, the Commissioner of the Prisons Department, the Attorney General, the Federal Territory Pardons Board, the director general of the Legal Affairs Department in the Prime Minister's Department, and the Law Minister — argued that the main order issued in February last year, which was to halve the former prime minister’s sentence, is the valid and final order.
"The main order, as announced in February, had agreed to reduce Najib's jail sentence from 12 years to six years, and the fine of RM250 million to RM50 million," he said, as reported by The Edge.
"That (main order) is the only one signed and sealed by the 16th Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah, that halved the sentence, [and this order] was directed to the then minister," he said.
This came after Najib's lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah shared a letter from the Pahang Sultanate Council affirming the addendum
The letter dated 4 January 2025 was addressed to Najib's eldest son Datuk Mohamad Nizar by the Comptroller of the Royal Household of the Sultan of Pahang Datuk Ahmad Khirrizal Ab Rahman.
