KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 15 — The Attorney General’s Chambers applied independently for a court order to prohibit public discussion of a purported royal addendum to former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s partial pardon, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said today.
Speaking at his weekly press briefing in Putrajaya, the government spokesman said the application was not at the behest of the Cabinet.
“It was not discussed. The Cabinet did not instruct the AGC (to do so),” he was quoted as saying by Free Malaysia Today.
On Monday, senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan told reporters that he made an oral application for the order to prevent the public from discussing Najib’s attempt to compel Putrajaya to allow him to serve the remainder of his jail term under house arrest.
Yesterday, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said expressed disagreement with the application.
In February 2024, the Federal Territories Pardons Board — chaired by the Yang diPertuan Agong — halved Najib’s sentence from his SRC International trial conviction to six years; he subsequently claimed that the Agong then had also issued a “royal addendum” for him to serve the remaining sentence under house arrest.
While the existence of the royal addendum has yet to be officially confirmed, Najib’s legal team produced a letter from the comptroller of the Pahang royal household at Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah, who was the Agong who chaired the meeting on Najib’s pardon, had issued such an order.
