KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 25 — The Malaysian government should disclose the additional cost to taxpayers if former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak serves the remainder of his SRC International jail term under house arrest, Malaysian Bar president Anand Raj said today.
In a statement, Anand urged the Federal Territories Pardons Board and the Prime Minister’s Department to disclose two things to the public:
- “Declassify and publish the official minutes of the Pardons Board meeting(s) held regarding Najib’s First Pardon and Najib’s Second Pardon decisions”; and
- “Fully disclose all conditions proposed to be attached to Najib’s house arrest, including monitoring protocols, enforcement authorities and the additional costs to taxpayers that a ‘house arrest’ would entail.”
In calling for greater transparency, Anand said the Malaysian Bar had adopted a joint statement issued on September 22 by 37 civil society groups and 387 individuals, including former Bersih leaders Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan and Maria Chin Abdullah, as well as Martabat PJ.
The joint statement urged the Pardons Board to release the full minutes and recorded justifications for its decision-making process in relation to Najib’s two pardons, under which his SRC sentence was first reduced and he was subsequently allowed to serve the remainder under house arrest if he fulfils certain conditions.
Anand also announced today that the Malaysian Bar would go to court to challenge the Pardons Board’s decision and advice concerning Najib’s second pardon.
“The Malaysian Bar will, through its solicitors, challenge the decision and advice of the Pardons Board concerning the Second Pardon, while maintaining its appeal in relation to the Pardons Board’s decision and advice on the First Pardon,” he said.
Najib has been imprisoned since August 23, 2022, after the Federal Court upheld his conviction and sentence in the SRC International case.
The first pardon referred to by Anand was the January 2024 decision that reduced Najib’s 12-year jail term to six years and his RM210 million fine to RM50 million.
The second, granted on September 18, allows Najib to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest until August 23, 2028, provided he pays the RM50 million fine and complies with other conditions.
Najib remains in prison as he has yet to pay the RM50 million fine.
His lawyer, Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, said today that Najib could not afford to pay the fine, noting that his bank accounts remain frozen.
Malaysian Bar president Anand Raj has called for the full conditions and taxpayer costs of Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s house arrest to be disclosed, as the Bar prepares a fresh legal challenge over the former prime minister’s second pardon. — Picture by Sayuti Zainudin About ‘house arrest’ in Malaysia
Among other things, Anand noted that then High Court judge Alice Loke had ruled in a court case involving Najib that Malaysia has no legal mechanism for house arrest.
He said the home minister had also confirmed that there was no law providing for house arrest, while the Cabinet had approved in principle the drafting and tabling of legislation on house arrest.
Addressing claims involving the purported house arrest of Kenneth Lee Fook Mun, a grandson of Tun H.S. Lee, Anand said the case was not a “legal precedent for granting house arrest” or legal authority for the proposition that Malaysia has a formal house-arrest framework.
Anand said Lee’s case did not appear to have been tested or endorsed by a court, and that it remained unclear whether his purported house arrest arose from a Pardons Board decision or from a release on licence by the Commissioner General of Prisons under Section 43 of the Prison Act 1995.
“Finally, from our research to date, there appear to be no standard operating procedures or guidelines in place for ‘house arrests’. A whole new ecosystem of rules and procedures would be required to operationalise ‘house arrests’,” he said.
Status of Malaysian Bar’s existing court challenge to Najib’s first pardon
On April 26, 2024, the Malaysian Bar filed a court challenge against Najib’s first pardon, which reduced his SRC sentence.
In that case, the Malaysian Bar sought to challenge the validity of the Pardons Board’s 2024 decision and advice.
It also sought a court order prohibiting the Pardons Board from considering any further pardon for Najib “until all criminal proceedings against him have been exhausted, and until he has publicly accepted responsibility for his actions and expressed repentance and remorse”.
As the challenge was brought through judicial review, the Malaysian Bar first had to obtain the court’s leave to proceed with the case.
The High Court on November 11, 2024, refused leave for the Malaysian Bar to proceed with the challenge.
The Court of Appeal is scheduled to deliver its decision on January 7, 2027, on the Malaysian Bar’s appeal against the High Court ruling.
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