Former prime minister Najib Razak suffered another legal setback when the High Court dismissed his bid to initiate contempt proceedings against former attorney-general Tan Sri Ahmad Terrirudin Mohd Salleh.
Judge Alice Loke Yee Ching ruled that Najib had failed to establish a prima facie case and that the allegations levelled against Terrirudin were speculative in nature. The court stressed that contempt proceedings, carrying severe implications, could not be allowed to proceed on the basis of conjecture.
Najib had filed the application in May this year, claiming that Terrirudin, now serving as a Federal Court judge, had acted in contempt in relation to an alleged additional document purportedly enabling him to serve his prison sentence under house arrest. The application sought permission from the court to commence formal committal proceedings.
Justice Loke, however, made clear that the case lacked the required evidentiary foundation. She noted that the respondent was under no obligation to confirm or deny the existence of the alleged addendum order at the leave stage of the application. According to her, attributing misconduct to Terrirudin merely because of the Attorney-General’s Chambers’ decision to oppose the application amounted to “pure conjecture.”
The judge added that there was no clear evidence showing that Terrirudin personally directed any false arguments to be advanced or sought to mislead the court. Given the serious consequences of contempt proceedings, she underlined that the judiciary must act with caution and avoid proceeding on mere assumptions.
The court highlighted that the Attorney-General’s Chambers, as an institution, has the role and discretion to oppose applications of this nature. Any inference of personal wrongdoing, she said, could not be drawn solely from the AGC’s stance in legal arguments.
Najib remains behind bars following his conviction in the SRC International corruption case, and the matter of the alleged house arrest document has been a point of dispute in several of his recent legal challenges.
The ruling marks another turning point in Najib’s ongoing legal battles, with the High Court making clear that speculative claims and unsubstantiated allegations cannot serve as the foundation for contempt proceedings.
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