KUALA LUMPUR: The royal addendum order that can grant Datuk Seri Najib Razak a house arrest was never decided in the 61st Pardons Board meeting, the same meeting that granted him a discount on his jail term and fine, the High Court heard.
Senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan said the imposition of house arrest, as reflected in the addendum order, was not deliberated in the said meeting that took place on Jan 29 last year.
Only the former prime minister’s jail sentence after being found guilty in the RM42mil SRC International Sdn Bhd case was halved to six years by the board and his fine was reduced from RM210mil to RM50mil, he argued.
“Based on the minutes of the meeting, only one decision was made during that meeting – namely the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s 50% decision,” he said in his submission during a judicial review application sought by Najib on the addendum order.
In his application, Najib named the Home Minister, the Commissioner General of Prisons, the Attorney General, the Federal Territories Pardons Board, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform), the director-general of the legal affairs at the Prime Minister’s Department and the government as the first to seventh respondents, respectively.
Najib is seeking a mandamus order that all of the respondents or one of them answer and verify the existence of the addendum order.
According to Shamsul, who is representing the respondents, if the house arrest was truly intended by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, such a decision ought to have been deliberated and resolved at the meeting, in accordance with the prescribed procedural process under Article 42(8) of the Federal Constitution.
“However, the addendum order was not decided upon during the meeting and its issuance outside the required procedural framework calls into question its validity under the Constitution,” he added.
As such, the addendum order was not “legally enforceable”, he argued.
Meanwhile, Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah submitted that they had more than proven to the courts that the addendum order was valid and that it exists.
He said the Attorney General’s Chambers had a “history of denial” when it comes to the addendum order and they should be compelled to give a copy of the order.
“It has been more than a year, this addendum order has not been enforced.
“My client should be under house arrest.
“Justice is finished, now it is only mercy,” Muhammad Shafee said.
Justice Alice Loke then fixed Jan 5 to deliver the decision in the judicial review application.
“I think I should take the Christmas holidays to deliberate and mull over this,” she said.
Najib is currently serving the sentence imposed on him after the High Court found him guilty of abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money laundering in relation to RM42mil that had been siphoned from SRC International, a former 1MDB subsidiary.
