KUALA LUMPUR: Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz has failed in his bid to file an affidavit related to an addendum order by the previous King allowing former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest.
Judge Datuk Amarjeet Singh dismissed Tengku Zafrul's leave application to file affidavit to correct "factual errors" in another affidavit, which claimed that former Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah, granted house arrest to Najib.
Senior federal counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambly who appeared for the Attorney-General's Chambers said there was no provision in the law that would enable the Investment Trade and Industry Minister to file his affidavit at this stage.
"The judge said Najib's case (judicial review) is still at leave (permission) stage.
"Amarjeet has yet to make his decision... he (Tengku Zafrul) can try again when the court allows leave on Najib's application," he said when met after the proceedings which was held in chambers today.
Amarjeet previously fixed June 5 to deliver his decision on Najib's leave application.
Najib's counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah later said he objected to Tengku Zafrul's application as the latter was not a party to the main suit.
Tengku Zafrul was represented by lawyer Datuk Sunil Abraham. He declined to comment when approached.
Earlier, the public was excluded from the hearing as the matter was taken into chambers.
It was previously reported that Tengku Zafrul filed the application to enable him to submit an affidavit addressing the "factual inaccuracies" in Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi's affidavit supporting Najib's case.
The Umno president had claimed that Tengku Zafrul showed him a copy of the addendum order on his phone on Jan 30, which he personally photographed or scanned from an original copy as shown to him by the former King.
On Jan 29, the Federal Territories Pardons Board, which the then King presided over, halved Najib's 12-year jail sentence for abuse of power and criminal breach of trust in the SRC International case, and reduced his RM210 million fine to RM50 million.
Najib in his judicial review application to the High Court on April 1, claimed the then King issued an addendum order — also on Jan 29 — allowing him to serve the remainder of his jail sentence under house arrest.
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.