THE Federal Court is set to hear the Attorney General's Chambers' (AGC) application for leave to appeal against a ruling by the Court of Appeal concerning an additional document in the ongoing legal case involving former Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
The hearing is scheduled for tomorrow at 9am in Federal Court 1.
Bernama cited today that the AGC’s application, filed through a notice of appeal on 4 February, seeks to challenge the Court of Appeal’s decision, which remitted the case to the High Court for consideration.
The matter concerns Najib's claim that an additional document exists which allegedly allows him to serve the remainder of his six-year prison sentence under house arrest.
On 6 January, the Court of Appeal, in a 2-1 majority ruling, overruled an earlier High Court decision that had dismissed Najib’s application for leave to begin judicial review proceedings regarding the alleged document.
The court directed that the case be remitted to the High Court to be heard on its merits.
Najib, aged 71, is seeking a mandamus order to compel the relevant authorities to confirm and disclose the existence of this purported document, which he claims was dated 29 January 2024.
His application names several respondents, including the Home Minister, the Commissioner-General of Prisons, the Attorney-General, the Pardons Board for the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Labuan, and Putrajaya, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform), the Director-General of the Legal Affairs Division in the Prime Minister’s Department, and the Government of Malaysia.
The former Pekan Member of Parliament is asking the court to order that, should the document be proven to exist, the respondents—or any one of them—should enforce its provisions immediately.
Specifically, he is seeking a transfer from Kajang Prison to his residence in Kuala Lumpur to complete the remainder of his sentence under house arrest.
This latest legal development follows a ruling from Justice Datuk Amarjeet Singh on 3 July 2022, which saw Najib’s application for judicial review rejected.
The judge found that the four affidavits submitted in support of Najib’s claim, including statements from UMNO President Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and UMNO Vice President Datuk Seri Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail, were considered hearsay and thus inadmissible as evidence in court.
Since 23 August 2022, Najib has been serving his sentence at Kajang Prison after being convicted of misappropriating RM42 million from SRC International Sdn Bhd. Initially, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined RM210 million, a decision upheld by both the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court.
However, following a petition for a royal pardon submitted on 2 September 2022, the Pardons Board reduced his sentence to six years and decreased his fine to RM50 million. – March 23, 2025
