Najib allowed to attend hearing of house arrest addendum appeal

PUTRAJAYA: Najib Razak can be present in the Court of Appeal tomorrow at the hearing of his appeal seeking leave for a judicial review over a royal decree purportedly allowing him to be placed under house arrest.

A three-member bench chaired by Justice Mariana Yahya allowed the former prime minister’s ex-parte application which was filed yesterday.

Also on the panel hearing the application were Justices Hashim Hamzah and Ahmad Fairuz Zainol Abidin.

Lawyer Shafee Abdullah appeared for Najib, whose appeal is scheduled to be heard on Thursday afternoon.

On July 3, the Kuala Lumpur High Court dismissed Najib’s application, ruling that he had shown no arguable case to warrant a full hearing of the 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 this year, 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.

He is currently serving his jail sentence at Kajang prison.

In his leave application filed in the High Court on April 1, Najib claimed that the 16th Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Al-Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, had during an FTPB meeting on Jan 29, also issued a supplementary decree.

Najib claimed the terms of that decree allowed him to serve the remainder of his jail term under house arrest.

The former prime minister 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.

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