No house arrest for Najib: court rejects bid for judicial review
Judge finds that affidavits filed to support ex-PM’s application were hearsay
(Scoop) – The high court has dismissed Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s leave application to initiate a judicial review over the alleged addendum order by the 16th Yang di-Pertuan Agong, which would allow him to serve the remainder of his jail sentence under house arrest.
Judge Datuk Amarjeet Singh, in delivering his decision today, found that the affidavits filed to support Najib’s application were purely hearsay.
The judge said this after considering affidavits filed by Najib, as well as Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and vice-president Datuk Seri Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail, who is also Pahang menteri besar. Their affidavits claimed that the alleged addendum order exists, a copy of which was shown to them by Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz.
The judge said Najib’s affidavit contained “bare statements without mentioning the source”, and those statements, together with his belief in the addendum order’s existence, were hearsay.
“The averments of Zahid were also pure hearsay, as the source of the information and his belief was Tengku Zafrul. Zahid himself has no knowledge of the addendum order except what he heard from Tengku Zafrul.
“The averments made by Wan Rosdy are also hearsay. I also hold that what Zahid saw in Tengku Zafrul’s handphone was not secondary evidence under Section 63(b), read with Sections 64 and 65 of the Evidence Act 1950,” the judge said in the open-court proceeding this morning.
The judge added he was not persuaded by Najib’s submissions, and that despite the application being still at the leave stage, the former prime minister is required to state the sources of his belief as claimed in his affidavits.
“The applicant relied on the source, Tengku Zafrul, but the source did not affirm any affidavit. There is also no explanation forthcoming as to this fact.
“The source was available but not used. Tengku Zafrul had attempted to file an affidavit but this court denied him as the law does not allow him to do so at the leave stage.
“In these circumstances, I hold that affidavits (filed by Najib, Zahid and Wan Rosdy) are purely hearsay. As such, there can be no arguable case for further investigation at the substantive stage.”
The judge also said that there is no provision in any written law or the Federal Constitution that imposes a legal duty on the Pardons Board to confirm the existence of the addendum order, or to produce it, wherein the power of pardon is exercised.
Najib’s application, he said, can only be granted when a legal duty is imposed on an authority. However, at the leave stage, he said, the threshold for leave is not met or satisfied.
The judge then dismissed the leave application without costs.
The 70-year-old former prime minister filed the leave application on April 1, seeking to compel the government to confirm the existence of the addendum order.
The former prime minister also claimed that the addendum order was not announced by the board on February 2 and that the government was in contempt for not executing the supplementary decree.
Najib named the home minister, the commissioner-general of prisons, the attorney-general, the Federal Territories Pardons Board, the government, the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) and the director-general of the legal affairs division in the Prime Minister’s Department as respondents.
He was represented by lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah while the respondents were represented by senior federal counsels Shamsul Bolhassan and Ahmad Hanir Hambaly.
Najib, currently serving his sentence in Kajang prison for corruption in the SRC International case, has requested the respondents confirm the addendum order’s existence.
The Federal Territories Pardons Board earlier this year halved Najib’s prison sentence in his SRC International case from 12 years to six and reduced his fine from RM210 million to RM50 million.
