Malaysia’s appeals court yesterday granted a bid by jailed former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak to see a document he said should allow him to serve his sentence at home, in a rare win for a disgraced former leader at the heart of the country’s biggest scandal.
Najib, who was jailed over the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal, had appealed a lower court decision in July last year that dismissed his bid to confirm the existence of and execute a royal order that he said entitled him to house arrest.
Malaysia’s pardons board, at the time chaired by then-Malaysian king al-Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah, agreed in February last year to halve Najib’s jail sentence to six years from 12 and reduced fines imposed on him, sparking public uproar.
Photo: AP
Najib maintained that an “addendum order” on house arrest was issued by the former king alongside the decision, but was never executed by authorities.
In a two to one decision on Monday, the Court of Appeal granted Najib’s appeal to overturn the lower court’s dismissal of his previous request. The case is to return to the High Court for hearing by a different judge.
“Najib was happy ... very relieved that finally they recognized some element of injustice that has been placed against him,” his lawyer, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, told a news conference.
In a surprise twist while the court was in session yesterday, an aide to Najib shared with media a letter dated Saturday from the office of al-Sultan Abdullah’s palace, which stated that a royal order granting Najib home detention was “valid and authentic.”
The office of the palace confirmed to Reuters the authenticity of the letter, which marked the first public acknowledgement by the palace of the existence of the royal order, which was issued just before the end of the king’s five-year reign.
Under the constitution, the monarch, which changes every five years under a Malaysia’s unique system of monarchy has authority to take decisions on granting pardons, upon the advice of a pardons board.
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