Malaysia’s appeals court on Monday allowed jailed ex-premier Najib Razak to access a document he claims could support his request to serve his sentence at home.
This is a rare legal victory for the disgraced leader embroiled in the nation’s largest corruption scandal.
Najib, who was jailed over the multi-billion-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 early last year to halve Najib’s jail sentence to six years from 12 and reduced fines imposed on him.
This sparked off public uproar.
But 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 will return to the High Court for a hearing by a different judge.
“Najib was happy … very relieved that finally they recognised some element of injustice that has been placed against him,” his lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah told a press conference.
‘Valid And Authentic’
On Monday, while the court proceedings were on, an aide to Najib shared with the media a letter dated January 4 from the office of Al-Sultan Abdullah’s palace.
The letter stated a royal order granting Najib home detention was “valid and authentic”.
The office of the palace confirmed to Reuters the authenticity of the January 4 letter.
Notably, this was 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.
Powers Of The Monarch
According to the Constitution, the monarch, who changes every five years under Malaysia’s unique system of monarchy has the authority to take decisions on granting pardons, upon the advice of a pardons board.
The office of the Attorney-General, who is a member of the pardons board, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the addendum order the palace said had been issued.
It was in 2020 that Najib was found guilty 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 U.S. investigators estimate $4.5 billion was stolen from 1MDB and more than $1 billion sent to accounts linked to Najib.
(With inputs from Reuters)
