PUTRAJAYA: There is no legal duty on the respondents named by Datuk Seri Najib Razak in his legal bid to confirm the existence of a royal addendum order that would allow him to go on house arrest, says a Court of Appeal judge.
Justice Azizah Nawawi, who chaired a three-judge panel of the appellate court, said this in her dissenting judgment in Najib’s appeal against the High Court’s dismissal of his leave application to initiate a judicial review here yesterday.
On the main appeal, Justice Azizah said she found no appealable error by the High Court judge.
“I agree with the finding of the High Court judge that there is no legal duty imposed on the respondents, particularly the Pardons Board, to confirm the existence or produce any order related to the exercise of the power of pardon,” she said.
“There is no provision in the written law or the very Constitution that could make the Pardons Board confirm or disclose any existence of a pardon order, including the addendum order.
“The appellant failed to demonstrate that such a legal duty existed to confirm or produce the same.
“I am of the considered opinion that there is no merit in the appeal. It must be dismissed with no cost,” she said.
The court had also heard Najib’s application to adduce new evidence in his application.
The new evidence was a letter from the Pahang Sultanate Council stating that the Sultan of Pahang had indeed given the order for Najib to serve the remainder of his jail sentence under house arrest.
The letter, dated Jan 4, was addressed to Najib’s eldest son Datuk Mohamad Nizar Najib and signed off by Datuk Ahmad Khirrizal Ab Rahman, who is the Comptroller of the Royal Household of the Sultan of Pahang.
On this application, Justice Azizah said Mohamad Nizar himself affirmed in his supporting affidavit that he frequently met with the Sultan of Pahang in his line of work.
“In view of the admission that he met the Sultan frequently, it cannot be said that fresh evidence could not be obtained with reasonable diligence for use before the hearing before the learned High Court judge.
“This can be seen when the deponent (Mohamad Nizar) subsequently obtained the same addendum many months later after the decision by the learned High Court judge.
“Therefore, I am of the considered opinion that there is no merit to the application on this fresh evidence,” Justice Azizah added.
The 2-1 majority decision, which was held by two other judges – Justices Azhahari Kamal Ramli and Mohd Firuz Jaffril – had overturned the High Court’s dismissal of Najib’s leave application and allowed his application to admit the letter from the Pahang Sultanate Council into evidence.
