Govt duty-bound to reveal king’s addendum order, says lawyer

PUTRAJAYA: The government and its agents are duty-bound to reveal the existence of a purported royal decree allowing Najib Razak to serve the remainder of his jail term under house arrest, the Court of Appeal heard today.

Submitting in the former prime minister’s application to adduce fresh evidence in his appeal for leave to commence judicial review, lawyer Shafee Abdullah said Najib was not under any duty to do, but had acted with due diligence to secure the evidence.

“It is the duty of the government, especially the then attorney-general (Ahmad Terrirudin Salleh) to surface the addendum order,” Shafee said, adding that the addendum was sent by the palace to the then AG when it was issued.

The lawyer said an adverse inference should be drawn against the government if no explanation was forthcoming.

“They (the government) must answer my client because they are a public authority,” he told the three-member bench chaired by Justice Azizah Nawawi.

Also on the panel hearing the application were Justices Azhahari Kamal Ramli and Firuz Jaffril.

Shafee said Najib had written to six parties, excluding the government, last year prior to filing his application for leave to begin judicial review proceedings in April last year.

Shafee also told the court that Najib’s son, Nizar, had filed another affidavit two days ago claiming that comptroller of the royal household of the Sultan of Pahang Ahmad Khirrizal Ab Rahman had confirmed the existence of the addendum order, and verified its authenticity.

At the previous hearing on Dec 5, senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan asked for an adjournment to enable the government to verify the authenticity of a document produced in the case.

He said the government needed time to verify the document that was not signed or sealed.

Najib is seeking to rely on the new evidence to secure leave to commence judicial review proceedings to compel the government to execute a purported royal decree issued by former Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, the current Sultan of Pahang.

The High Court previously ruled that Najib had failed to show he had an arguable case to warrant a full hearing of his proposed judicial review application.

Justice Amarjeet Singh said the statements contained in affidavits filed by Najib, Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, and the party’s vice-president, Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail, were hearsay and inadmissible as evidence.

On Feb 2, the Federal Territories Pardons Board (FTPB) announced that Najib’s prison sentence in his SRC International case had been halved from 12 years to six, and his fine reduced from RM210 million to RM50 million.

The former prime minister is currently serving his jail sentence at Kajang prison.

In his leave application filed in the High Court on April 1, he claimed that the former king, during an FTPB meeting on Jan 29, also issued a supplementary decree allowing him to serve the remainder of his reduced jail term under house arrest.

He said the FTPB had omitted to announce the terms of the supplementary decree, and that the government was in contempt for not complying with it.

He wants the court to compel the government to execute the supplementary decree, if it exists, by placing him under house arrest.