Appellate Court remits Najib’s legal bid over alleged royal addendum to High Court

PUTRAJAYA (Jan 6): The Court of Appeal, in a 2-1 majority decision, has remitted Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s legal bid regarding his claim of the existence of a royal addendum allowing him to serve the remainder of his six-year prison sentence under house arrest, to the High Court for a hearing on its merits.

Justices Datuk Azhahari Kamal Ramli and Datuk Seri Mohd Firuz Jaffril allowed the former premier’s appeal to overturn the High Court’s dismissal of his application for leave to commence a judicial review on the matter.

However, Justice Datuk Azizah Nawawi, who led the panel, dissented stating Najib’s appeal had no merit.

Justice Azizah also denied Najib’s application to adduce additional evidence to support his claim of the existence of such an addendum, whereas Justices Azhari and Mohd Firuz allowed it.

Najib, 71, is appealing the Kuala Lumpur High Court’s July 3 decision last year, which dismissed his application for leave to commence a judicial review of a purported addendum issued by the 16th Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

Delivering the majority decision, Justice Mohd Firuz stated that the court took note of the High Court judge’s reasoning for dismissing the leave application, which was largely based on the applicant (Najib) relying on hearsay evidence.

“Premised on the new evidence admitted by the applicant, we find that the issue of hearsay can no longer stand.

“Bearing in mind that an applicant in a judicial review only needs to show that he or she has a good arguable case premised on the fact that his interest or rights have been aggrieved and one that is not frivolous and vexatious, we are minded to allow the appeal.

“We hereby, order the matter to be remitted to the High Court for the hearing of the substantive judicial review application,” he said.

Regarding the application to adduce additional evidence, Justice Mohd Firuz noted that the applicant had written to the respondents seeking confirmation of the existence of the addendum order, however, they did not respond.

“The applicant continued to try to obtain evidence of the existence of the addendum order from various sources which includes the affidavit of Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Pahang Menteri Besar (Datuk Seri Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail).

“At the High Court, the learned judge had decided that the information obtained from these various sources were hearsay,” he added.

The judge further said the applicant’s son (Datuk Mohamad Nizar) obtained a copy of the addendum order from the office of the Sultan of Pahang on Aug 17, 2024, with strict instructions it should not be used without the Sultan’s consent.

He said the applicant then sought the Sultan’s permission to include the addendum in his affidavit for the appeal, obtaining the consent on Dec 2, 2024, after which he proceeded to file the addendum with the court.

“Without the consent, it was not possible for the applicant to file the addendum into court nor can the applicant compel the Sultan to furnish the said addendum. We are therefore of the view that the applicant had complied with the principles propounded in Ladd v Marshall,” said the judge.

-Agency