PAHANG Menteri Besar Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail has filed an affidavit saying he was informed by International Trade and Investment Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz of a royal order allowing Najib Razak to serve house arrest, Malaysiakini reports.

The affidavit, which supports Najib’s application for home detention instead of prison, was filed last week to the Kuala Lumpur High Court. 

The court will decide on Najib’s leave application on June 5.

Wan Rosdy, who also serves as the Umno vice-president, said Tengku Zafrul had informed him of the royal addendum on January 30.

“He told me that the 16th Yang di-Pertuan Agong had issued an order to reduce Najib’s jail sentence by half and to limit the fine to RM50 million,” said Wan Rosdy.

“Secondly, along with the first decision, the 16th Yang di-Pertuan Agong has also issued another order (addendum order) for Najib to continue serving his remaining jail sentence by way of house arrest at his residence instead of any prison,” Wan Rosdy added in his affidavit.

Wan Rosdy said the matter was discussed with several Umno leaders at Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s house in Kajang. Zahid confirmed that he had received the same information from Zafrul.

“Zahid also said that he has read the addendum order as shown by Zafrul,” said Wan Rosdy.

Zahid had filed an affidavit on April 9 supporting Najib’s bid for home detention. Zahid said Zafrul showed him the document on his handphone at his house on January 30. He noted that the order had the seal and signature of the then Agong.

Earlier this month, Zafrul failed to get leave from the Kuala Lumpur High Court to intervene in Najib’s bid for house arrest. The minister had sought permission to file an affidavit to “correct factual errors” in Zahid’s affidavit supporting Najib’s judicial review.

Senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan reported that the court rejected Zafrul’s bid on the grounds that there was no legal provision for someone not party to a judicial review proceeding to file affidavits.

Malaysiakini reported today that the Attorney-General’s Chambers had objected to the admission of Wan Rosdy’s affidavi because it was filed too late. Government lawyers argued that the Rules of Court 2012 do not permit such late filings, especially since the civil court had already heard the parties’ oral submissions on April 17 and had set June 5 to decide whether Najib can obtain leave to proceed with the judicial review.

If the civil court grants leave, it will set a later date to hear the parties’ oral submissions on the merits of the legal action. Najib is seeking leave to commence a judicial review for the implementation of an alleged supplementary order by the previous Yang di-Pertuan Agong linked to the partial pardon that halved his jail sentence to six years and reduced his fine from RM210 million to RM50 million.

On April 1, while serving jail time at the Kajang Prison over the RM42 million SRC International corruption case, Najib filed the judicial review leave application. In the judicial review application, Najib said the Agong issued the addendum on January 29, the same day the partial pardon order was issued. – May 27, 2024.