KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Razak's lawyer said criticisms that the proceedings involving Datuk Seri Najib Razak's judicial review application for an alleged house arrest order were conducted in secret, were "completely misplaced."

Lawyer Muhammad Farhan Muhammad Shafee dismissed the criticisms advised those parties to review the relevant laws before issuing any disparaging remarks.

"The criticisms of yesterday's proceedings that they were allegedly conducted in secret are completely misplaced. I strongly advise any critics to check the relevant law before disparaging parties including the court in this matter.

"To put the issue into context, yesterday's proceedings was scheduled for leave to commence a judicial review - not the substantive hearing itself.

"Pursuant to Order 53 Rule 3(2) of the Rules of Court 2012 an application for leave must be made ex-parte to a judge in chambers.

"The word 'must' suggest that this process is mandatory to be a chambers hearing with the public not invited to sit in (and this also includes the applicant himself (Najib) who was not present)," he said in a statement today.

Farhan said since the Covid-19 pandemic, 'chambers' matters were often conducted in open court to facilitate social distancing.

He said the request by counsel for the public to be excluded from the proceedings is 100 per cent in line with the present rules of court.

"While I note that the reasons cited by counsel was due to issues of potential sensitivity, which is a separate ground altogether, it does not change the fact that the law requires that this stage of the proceedings to be held privately in chambers to begin with.

"What Bersih and other NGO's are trying to do is effectively calling for a re-writing or re-interpretation the Rules of Court 2012 for this case which ironically goes against their overarching demands for "equal treatment," he said.

Najib's lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, at the onset of yesterday's proceeding, had asked the court to exclude the public from hearing the case due to 'several sensitive materials' in the case.

The 'sensitive materials' are related to Najib's claim that the former Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah allowed him to serve his remaining jail sentence under house arrest via an addendum order.

Senior Federal Counsels Shamsul Bolhassan and Ahmad Hanir Hambaly did not object to his request for the matters to be heard in chambers.

Judge Datuk Amarjeet Singh allowed the proceedings to be held in chambers before fixing June 5 to make his verdict on leave application.

It was reported that Najib had filed an application to compel the government to produce the addendum order, the contents of which the former prime minister says have not been revealed by the government.

He named the Home Minister, Prison Department commissioner general, Attorney-General (AG), Federal Territories Pardons Board, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reform), Legal Affairs Division director-general, and the government as respondents.

Najib is currently serving a 12-year jail term after he was found guilty of abuse of power and criminal breach of trust involving RM42 million from SRC International, a former 1MDB subsidiary.

He was also fined RM210 million.

https://www.nst.com.my/news/crime-courts/2024/04/1039691/najibs-lawyers-says-criticism-house-arrest-proceedings-completely