Prominent lawyer Shafee Abdullah has claimed that at least seven letters were sent to various top government figures and agencies to verify the existence of an alleged royal addendum involving former Prime Minister Najib Razak—but none have responded.
According to Shafee, letters were directed to the former attorney-general Ahmad Terrirudin Salleh, Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, Law and Institutional Reform Minister Azalina Othman Said, the Prisons Department’s commissioner-general, and the Malaysian government. The prime minister and his deputy were also reportedly copied on these correspondences. Despite the broad outreach, Shafee stated that no acknowledgement or reply had been received from any of the recipients.
He argued that if the controversial addendum did not exist, there should have been no hesitation in issuing a response to clarify the matter. Shafee suggested that silence in this context only raises more questions about transparency and accountability.
The matter centers on Najib’s ongoing attempt to enforce what he claims is a royal decree allowing him to serve the remainder of his prison sentence under house arrest. The Court of Appeal has already granted him leave to pursue judicial review on the matter. However, those proceedings have been paused, pending the outcome of the Federal Court’s deliberation on an appeal by the current Attorney-General.
Earlier this year, the Federal Territories Pardons Board had already granted partial clemency to Najib, reducing his 12-year prison term to six years and slashing his RM210 million fine to RM50 million. But the existence of a separate royal addendum concerning house arrest remains in dispute.
On May 21, Najib initiated contempt of court proceedings against Ahmad Terrirudin, accusing the former attorney-general of withholding the alleged royal document. Najib contends that this omission constitutes a failure to uphold transparency and misled the court.
The Attorney-General’s Chambers, however, dismissed these claims, asserting that Najib’s action violated an existing court order tied to his judicial review and insisting there was no attempt to deceive the court.
Shafee, defending the legal action, insisted that in any judicial review process, it is a legal obligation for the party summoned to fully disclose relevant facts and documents. He warned that playing “hide-and-seek” with such critical information undermines the integrity of the judicial process and casts doubt over the government's commitment to due process.
Information Source: FMT
Kamran is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact creator@newswav.com.