Kuala Lumpur: Former prime minister Najib Razak’s bid to commence a legal challenge against the prisons department’s refusal for him to attend the Dewan Rakyat has been denied by the High Court here.
“There is no more Parliament for him (Najib) to attend,” said Justice Ahmad Kamal Shahid this morning.
“It is clear that with the dissolution of Parliament, its term has ended. The applicant (Najib) is no longer the (Pekan) MP.”
Najib had filed his bid on Oct 5 to commence judicial review proceedings against the government for refusing to let him attend the Dewan Rakyat meeting scheduled from Oct 3 to Nov 29.
However, all sittings of the lower house were vacated after Parliament was dissolved on Oct 10
Najib wanted the court to set aside the prisons department’s decision at the end of last month to refuse him permission to attend the sittings for security reasons.
He had also sought to revoke the department’s decision to refuse him access to his officers for purposes of parliamentary, legislative and constituency work.
Kamal said he had taken note of the fact that the Dewan Rakyat’s dissolution had been gazetted and that a general election would be held on Nov 19 when new MPs would be elected.
“There is no possibility for him (Najib) to become an MP again. He is now a prisoner and the law forbids a convicted person from contesting unless and until a (royal) pardon is given to quash his conviction (in the SRC International corruption case),” he said.
The court made no order as to costs.
Najib’s lawyer, Shafee Abdullah, said they would be appealing the decision, and that the notice of appeal would be filed later today.
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