Senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan told the Court of Appeal today the adjournment was necessary to enable the government to verify the authenticity of a document produced in the case.
Shamsul told a three-member bench chaired by Justice Azizah Nawawi, the Attorney-General’s Chambers only received the cause papers from Najib’s solicitors yesterday.
“We need time to verify an exhibit. That document was not signed or sealed,” he told the bench in a packed courtroom.
Also on the panel hearing the application were Justices Azhahari Kamal Ramli and Firuz Jaffril.
Lawyer Shafee Abdullah, representing Najib, asked for the court to fix a short hearing date due to the urgency of the matter.
“This bench has been identified to hear the application,” he said.
Azizah, however, denied this, saying that the application was assigned to the present panel as it was already scheduled to sit today.
“We have no discretion to insist on hearing the case as that is decided by the court registry. This matter is adjourned to another day,” she said.
Azizah said a case management will be held to determine the application’s new hearing date.
The High Court in Kuala Lumpur had on July 3 dismissed Najib’s application for leave, and the Court of Appeal was scheduled to hear Najib’s appeal from that ruling this afternoon.
However, on Tuesday, Najib filed the fresh evidence application to strengthen his bid for leave to bring judicial review proceedings over a purported supplementary order issued by former king Al-Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah placing him under house arrest for the remainder of his jail term.
In an affidavit affirmed in support of the application, Shafee said Najib had no intention to delay today’s appeal hearing. However, the new evidence was only recently obtained by Najib’s son, Nizar.
Shafee also asked the appeals court to issue a protective order to preserve the confidentiality of the additional evidence due to its sensitive nature.
He said all criteria prescribed by law for introducing fresh evidence at the appellate stage have also been fulfilled.
Court documents sighted by FMT revealed that the application was also accompanied by an affidavit affirmed on Dec 2 by Nizar, the Peramu Jaya assemblyman and a Pahang executive councillor.
The High Court had previously ruled that Najib had failed to show he had an arguable case to warrant a full hearing of his proposed judicial review application.
Justice Amarjeet Singh said the statements contained in affidavits filed by Najib, Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and the party’s vice-president, Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail, were hearsay and inadmissible as evidence.
On Feb 2, the Federal Territories Pardons Board announced that Najib’s prison sentence in his SRC International case had been halved from 12 years to six, and his fine reduced from RM210 million to RM50 million.
The former prime minister is currently serving his jail sentence at Kajang prison.
In his leave application filed in the High Court on April 1, he claimed the former king had, during an FTPB meeting on Jan 29, also issued a supplementary decree allowing him to serve the remainder of his reduced jail term under house arrest.
He said the FTPB had omitted to announce the terms of the supplementary decree, and that the government was in contempt for not complying with it.
He wants the court to compel the government to execute the supplementary decree, if it exists, by placing him under house arrest.