Najib files an application in the appeals court to challenge the Addendum Order

PUTRAJAYA: Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has filed an appeal against the High Court’s decision, which rejected his application to initiate a judicial review to challenge the existence of an Addendum Order allegedly issued by the 16th Yang di-Pertuan Agong to enable him to serve the remainder of his prison sentence under house arrest.

Najib’s lawyer, Muhammad Farhan Muhammad Shafee, when contacted, told Bernama that the notice of appeal was filed on July 9.

Based on the court’s e-filing system, the appeal has been set for case management on October 7.

On July 3, the Kuala Lumpur High Court rejected the former Prime Minister’s application to initiate judicial review proceedings against eight respondents, including the government, to challenge the existence of the Addendum Order.

High Court Judge Datuk Amarjeet Singh made the decision after he opined that the four affidavits filed in support of Najib’s application, including those by UMNO President Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and its Vice President, Datuk Seri Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail, were hearsay or rumours.

Through an application for permission filed last April, Najib, 70, applied for a mandamus order to compel either all or one of the respondents to answer and confirm the existence of the additional decree dated Jan 29 of this year.

Najib also applied for a mandamus order that, if the additional decree exists, all or one of the respondents should enforce it immediately by transferring him from Kajang Prison to his residence in Kuala Lumpur to serve the remainder of his prison sentence as a house arrest.

He named the Minister of Home Affairs, the Chief Commissioner of Prisons, the Attorney General, the Board of Pardons for the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Labuan, and Putrajaya, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (JPM) (Law and Institutional Reform), the Director General of the Legal Affairs Division in JPM, and the Malaysian Government as respondents.

Najib has been serving his sentence in Kajang Prison since August 23, 2022, after being convicted of embezzling RM42 million in funds belonging to SRC International Sdn Bhd.

On September 2, 2022, he filed a petition for a royal pardon, and the Board of Pardons reduced Najib’s prison sentence from 12 years to six years, while the fine was reduced from RM210 million to RM50 million.