No leave for Tengku Zafrul to file ‘supplementary order’ affidavit
Tengku Zafrul Aziz had sought to file an affidavit to ‘correct certain errors’ concerning the purported ‘supplementary order’ allowing Najib Razak to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest.
KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here has refused to grant Tengku Zafrul Aziz leave to file an affidavit to “correct certain errors” over a purported “supplementary order” allowing Najib Razak to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest.
Senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan, appearing for the government, said the court rejected the bid on grounds that there was no legal provision for someone not a party to a judicial review proceeding to file an affidavit.
However, the court also said Tengku Zafrul and his lawyers could try their luck again if Najib is given leave to pursue his legal challenge, Shamsul said.
The investment, trade and industry minister was represented by lawyer Sunil Abraham, while Shafee Abdullah appeared for Najib.
In his application filed on April 1, Najib claimed that the then Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, had issued the supplementary decree during the Federal Territories Pardons Board’s meeting on Jan 29, a day before his term ended.
However, Najib alleged that the “addendum order” was not announced by the board on Feb 2 and that the government was in contempt for not executing the supplementary decree.
Najib also said his lawyers had written to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, and law and institutional reform minister Azalina Othman Said to confirm whether the supplementary decree existed.
They received no response from them.
Najib wants the court to compel the government to execute the supplementary decree, if it exists, to place him under house arrest.
Zahid filed an affidavit to support Najib’s legal challenge bid, claiming that Tengku Zafrul had shown him the “addendum order” on his phone during their meeting.
“He showed me a copy of the said addendum order on his phone which he took from an original copy shown to him by Al-Sultan Abdullah,” he said.
The High Court has fixed June 5 to rule on whether to allow Najib to proceed with his legal challenge.