KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysia’s attorney-general’s chambers has sought a gag order to ban public discussion of former Prime Minister Najib Razak’s judicial review claim that a document exists allowing him to serve his remaining prison sentence under house arrest, according to state news agency Bernama.
Najib, jailed for his role in the multi-billion dollar 1MDB scandal, is pursuing a legal bid to compel authorities to confirm the existence of and execute an “addendum order” that he said was issued last year as part of a pardon by then-King Al-Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah, entitling him to serve the remainder of his sentence at home.
The issue has caused a huge stir in Malaysia, with disgraced political heavyweight Najib insisting the former king’s addendum order was ignored by authorities when they announced the halving of his sentence last year.
The former king’s palace has issued a letter saying the document does exist, but Malaysia’s law ministry said it has no record of it, its home minister has denied knowledge and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has said “we did not hide anything”.
Bernama on Monday quoted Shamsul Bolhassan, deputy chief of the chambers’ civil division, as saying the gag order request had been filed to a court. The official had previously said the case touched on sensitive issues, according to Bernama.
Najib was found guilty in 2020 of criminal breach of trust and abuse of power for illegally receiving funds misappropriated from a unit of state investor 1Malaysia Development Berhad. He is on trial for corruption in several other 1MDB-linked cases and denies wrongdoing.
Najib this month hailed as “one step forward” the Court of Appeal’s decision to overturn the dismissal of his attempt to access the document. The case will go back to court to be heard by another judge.
(Reporting by Ashley Tang; Editing by Martin Petty)
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