PUTRAJAYA, April 28 — The Federal Court today unanimously allowed the attorney general (AG) to continue with his appeal against former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s ongoing court bid to be placed under house arrest instead of serving the remainder of his jail term in Kajang Prison.
Chief Judge of Malaya Datuk Seri Hasnah Mohammed Hashim, who chaired a three-judge panel, delivered the decision in the AG’s favour.
This means that the AG will be able to have the Federal Court hear his appeal on why Najib should not be allowed to continue his court case to get house arrest.
The other Federal Court judges on the panel were Datuk Zabariah Mohd Yusof and Datuk Hanipah Farikullah. AG Datuk Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar – who had previously appeared in court on March 24 to present arguments for this case – was present today.
Najib, dressed in a suit and tie, was also present in the courtroom today and under the guard of prison officers.
Najib has been serving his 12-year jail term since August 2022, but in January 2024, the Federal Territories Pardons Board reduced his sentence to six years’ jail.
Najib has since claimed that the then Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah issued an additional order through an “addendum” document to allow him to serve the rest of his jail term under house arrest.
In April 2024, Najib filed a judicial review at the High Court seeking an order for the federal government and the Pardons Board to confirm that the house arrest addendum actually exists.
He also wanted the High Court to order the Malaysian government to carry out the addendum by removing him from Kajang Prison and allow him to serve out the remainder of his jail sentence at his Kuala Lumpur house.
With the judicial review application, Najib needed to get the court’s permission for his challenge to be heard, which was denied last July.
But in January this year, he was granted leave in a 2-1 decision at the Court of Appeal; which also sent back his case for another hearing at the High Court.
Following the Federal Court’s decision today, the AG will be able to appeal against the Court of Appeal’s majority decision to grant Najib leave.
The AG’s appeal at the Federal Court is important as it will determine whether Najib’s court bid to ultimately be placed under house arrest can continue or not.
The AG’s appeal is also against the Court of Appeal previously allowing Najib to add in new evidence at the leave for judicial review stage, and the Federal Court said it would allow the AG to appeal on this.
The Federal Court said this was because the AG would be prejudiced by the Court of Appeal’s decision to admit Najib’s additional evidence at that stage, as the AG would not be able to argue in the High Court on whether such new evidence should be admitted since the High Court would be bound by the Court of Appeal’s decision.
The Federal Court today allowed the AG’s application to have seven questions of law to be heard in the appeal, with four of them involving the issue of admissibility of fresh evidence and the rest involving the AG’s role in judicial review proceedings.
“The questions posed are novel and of public importance which should be fully ventilated before this court,” Hasnah said when reading out the reasons for the Federal Court’s decision, and gave no order for costs.
Najib’s lead defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah told the Federal Court that he has “absolute confidence” in any panel of judges there, but also said he wondered if there should be a bigger panel of five or seven judges to hear the AG’s appeal since it is an important matter.
Hasnah replied that this was not for her to decide, and said it will be up to the chief justice.
As this is a public interest case and as it would benefit both sides, the Federal Court ordered early hearing dates for the AG’s appeal on July 1 and July 2.
As both sides had committed today to these two July dates, Hasnah said the Federal Court will not allow any postponements to the appeal hearing.
Separately, the AG and Shafee both confirmed today to the Federal Court that the High Court has not fixed any hearing dates yet for Najib’s court bid to get house arrest.
Dusuki and Shafee both said they have agreed to ask the High Court to stay or temporarily hold off on this afternoon’s hearing on the AG’s bid for a gag order in Najib’s house arrest court bid, until the Federal Court hears the AG’s appeal.
