Three-member bench rules 2-1 to grant Najib Razak’s appeal to use the decree to argue his case before the High Court.
Malaysia’s appeals court has granted a bid by jailed ex-premier 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.
A three-member bench ruled 2-1 on Monday to grant Najib’s appeal to use the decree to argue his case before the High Court.
“Given the fact that there is no challenge [of the existence of the decree], there is no justification that the order has not been complied with,” said Mohamad Firuz Jaffril, one of the three Court of Appeal judges.
The 71-year-old Najib, who was jailed over the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal, had appealed a lower court decision last July 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-King Al-Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah, agreed in February last year to halve Najib’s jail sentence to six years from 12 and reduce fines imposed on him, prompting public uproar.
But Najib maintained that an “addendum order” on house arrest was issued by the former king alongside the decision and was never executed by authorities.
Following the court ruling on Monday, Malaysia’s home minister said the prisons department had not received any notification about Najib’s possible home detention last year.
The home ministry received no communication on the issue from Malaysia’s former king, who chaired the pardons board, minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail told a press conference. “The government will fully implement royal orders if received,” he said.
According to the constitution, the monarch, who changes every five years under Malaysia’s unique system of monarchy, has authority to take decisions on granting pardons, upon the advice of the pardons board.
Following Monday’s ruling, “Najib was happy,” his lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah told a news conference. “[He is] very relieved that finally they recognised some element of injustice that has been placed against him.”
Najib was found guilty in 2020 of criminal breach of trust and abuse of power for illegally receiving funds misappropriated from a unit of state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad.
Najib remains on trial for corruption in several other 1MDB-linked cases. He has consistently denied wrongdoing.
Malaysian and United States investigators estimate $4.5bn was stolen from 1MDB and more than $1bn channelled to accounts linked to Najib.
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