Court allows Najib’s presence at hearing on Malaysian Bar’s challenge to SRC International pardon on July 31

PUTRAJAYA, July 8 — The Court of Appeal today granted former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak permission to attend the Malaysian Bar’s appeal hearing challenging the Pardons Board’s decision to reduce his prison sentence and fine in the SRC International case.

The court issued an order to produce (OTP), a legal directive requiring prison authorities to produce Najib before the court for the hearing scheduled on July 31. The request for an OTP was made by Najib’s lawyer M. Naresh.

His ex-parte application was granted by a three-member bench comprising Justices Datuk Azman Abdullah, Datuk Hayatul Abdul Aziz, and Datuk Dr Lim Hock Leng.

In November 2024, the High Court had dismissed the Malaysian Bar’s application for leave to commence judicial review proceedings to quash the Pardons Board’s decision.

The Malaysian Bar had originally filed the application on April 26, 2024, naming the Pardons Board of the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Labuan, and Putrajaya, as well as Najib, as respondents.

It had sought a declaration that the Pardons Board’s decision on January 29, 2024, to halve Najib’s prison sentence, resulting in his early release on August 23, 2028, is illegal, unconstitutional and void.

It is also seeking a declaration that the Pardons Board’s decision to reduce Najib’s fine from RM210 million to RM50 million is similarly illegal, unconstitutional and void.

The reduction came with the condition that failure to settle the fine would extend his prison term by one year, pushing his early release to August 23, 2029.

Najib, 72, has been serving his sentence at Kajang Prison since August 23, 2022, after being convicted of misappropriating RM42 million from SRC International Sdn Bhd.

He filed a petition for a royal pardon on September 2, 2022, which resulted in the Pardons Board halving his prison sentence from 12 years to six years and reducing his fine from RM210 million to RM50 million. — Bernama