KUALA LUMPUR: An application by Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz, seeking to file his affidavit in Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s application for leave to initiate judicial review, has been dismissed.
The affidavit by Tengku Zafrul was linked to a purported royal addendum order that should place the former prime minister under house arrest.
The Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry had wanted to file his own affidavit in the main application to correct “factual inaccuracies” in a supplementary affidavit, filed by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in support of Najib’s application.
However, High Court Judge Amarjeet Singh dismissed Tengku Zafrul’s application in an in-chambers proceeding yesterday.
When met by reporters, Senior Federal Counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambaly, who appeared for the Attorney-General’s Chambers, said the matter was still at the ex parte leave stage and that there was no law provision for Tengku Zafrul to insert his affidavit at this point.
“The applicant (Tengku Zafrul) can try again (in his legal action) when the court allows leave on the main application (by Najib),” he said.
Lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, who represented Najib, said he objected to Tengku Zafrul’s application because the applicant was not a party to the main suit.
Tengku Zafrul was represented by lawyer Datuk Sunil Abraham.
On April 22, Tengku Zafrul wrote to the High Court through his solicitors from Cecil Abraham & Partners that he was seeking leave to file an affidavit that would specifically address the averments contained in paragraph six of the affidavit by Ahmad Zahid, dated April 9.
In the paragraph, Ahmad Zahid claimed he was shown a copy of the addendum order on Tengku Zafrul’s phone, which the minister personally photographed or scanned from an original copy as shown to him by the former Yang di-Pertuan Agong.
On April 9, Ahmad Zahid affirmed the affidavit in support of Najib’s application for leave for judicial review in his claims that there was a royal addendum order granted to him along with his royal pardon.
In his document, Ahmad Zahid said the royal addendum from the former Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah, which would allow Najib to go under house arrest, indeed existed.
The Umno president said he was shown the document by Tengku Zafrul, who was the former Selangor Umno treasurer, at his (Ahmad Zahid) house at Country Heights on Jan 30.
Najib filed the application for leave for judicial review on April 1.
He named the Home Minister, the Commissioner General of Prisons, the Attorney-General, the Federal Territories Pardons Board, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform), director-general of legal affairs at the Prime Minister’s Department, and the government as the first to seventh respondents, respectively.
In the notice of application, Najib sought a mandamus order that all of the respondents or one of them answer and verify the existence of the addendum order, dated Jan 29.
The former prime minister is seeking that if the addendum order exists, all or one of the respondents must execute the royal order and immediately move him from the Kajang Prison to his residence in Kuala Lumpur, where he would serve his remaining sentence under house arrest.
Justice Amarjeet fixed June 5 to deliver his decision on Najib’s leave application.
