Court allows Najib to object Malaysian Bar’s bid to challenge reduction of his jail time, fine

Malay Mail

KUALA LUMPUR, July 2 — The High Court today allowed Datuk Seri Najib Razak to give views via his lawyers to object the Malaysian Bar’s bid in a lawsuit to have his partial pardon declared unlawful, due to public interest.

Today was the High Court’s hearing of the Malaysian Bar’s application for leave or for the court’s nod to proceed with its lawsuit to challenge the Federal Territories Pardons Board’s decision to reduce Najib’s 12-year jail term and his RM210 million fine.

But after lawyers for the Malaysian Bar presented their arguments at the High Court, Najib’s lead defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah — who entered the courtroom halfway through the hearing — applied to the court to present his client’s views on the court case.

After hearing from all parties including the Malaysian Bar and the Attorney General’s Chambers, High Court judge Datuk Ahmad Kamal Md Shahid noted that the court case is currently at the leave stage for judicial review, and that usually this stage would only involve the applicant (the Malaysian Bar) and the attorney general.

He said the two respondents named by the Malaysian Bar in its court case — the Federal Territories Pardons Board and Najib — would usually only be involved if the court has given leave for the judicial review to be heard at the substantive stage.

“But in this case, the second respondent (Najib) has been present and applied to be heard at this stage as the putative respondent,” he said, adding however that he finds that this case involves “public interest” and that Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was previously also allowed to present his views or intervene in court proceedings that were at the leave stage.

“So, for today, since there is an application from the second respondent to enter as putative respondent and allowed to present submissions, I exercise my discretion, in view of the public interest in this case and the respondent is an interested party in this case although for leave, I allow the second respondent (Najib) to be present in this proceeding as the putative second respondent,” the judge said.

In other words, Shafee will be allowed to present views for his client Najib at the leave stage in this case, including to object to the Malaysian Bar’s bid for leave to continue with its challenge on the partial pardon.

Shafee claimed to have only heard of this court proceeding this morning and said Najib should be allowed to appear at this stage as the lawsuit directly affects his client.

He also said his client wants to argue that the Malaysian Bar’s lawsuit is without sanction.

Shafee later cited Zahid’s case where he was allowed to be present at the leave stage of a case, after Zahid’s lawyer raised arguments that he would be directly affected by any court decision including on decision whether to grant leave.

The Malaysian Bar will need to get leave from the court to continue with its challenge of the Pardons Board’s partial pardon on Najib. If the Malaysian Bar fails to get leave, it cannot proceed to have its lawsuit heard.

Earlier, former Malaysian Bar president Zainur Zakaria — who is representing the Malaysian Bar — pointed out that the Malaysian Bar is not obliged to inform Najib of the lawsuit as they have “no right to be present” at the leave stage, and that the courts’ rules are clear that Najib can only come in as a party to the lawsuit if leave is granted.

“So, with all due respect, the request to intervene to present their view should be rejected,” he told the court, having said that the rules of the court are clear and that it would be “just out of the question” for Najib to argue or present views now.

Senior federal counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambaly @ Arwi left it to the High Court’s discretion to decide on whether Najib can attend the leave stage of the court proceedings as a putative respondent.

After having decided that Najib can present his views at the leave stage, the judge then gave all parties involved — the Malaysian Bar, the Attorney-General’s Chambers and Najib — more time to file in court papers on their arguments before hearing continues.

The High Court then scheduled September 18 for continued hearing of the Malaysian Bar’s application for leave for its court challenge, and tentatively also fixed September 23 as additional hearing date if hearing is not completed on September 18.

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