KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court dismissed former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s application for leave to initiate committal proceedings against former Attorney-General Tan Sri Ahmad Terrirudin Mohd Salleh for alleged contempt of court.
Judge Alice Loke Yee Ching ruled that Najib had failed to prove a prima facie case for contempt in his application filed on May 21 this year.
Justice Loke stated that Najib’s application was based largely on speculation regarding an alleged additional document that purportedly allowed him to serve his jail sentence under house arrest.
She emphasised that Terrirudin, now a Federal Court judge, was under no obligation to either confirm or deny the existence of the alleged document at the leave application stage.
“To my mind, it is pure conjecture to attribute dishonourable conduct on the part of the respondent merely from the stand taken to oppose the leave application,“ she said in her judgment.
Justice Loke noted that the allegations amounted to mere speculation without clear evidence showing Terrirudin personally acted as alleged.
She added that one cannot infer a specific instruction to present untrue arguments solely based on the position taken by the respondent’s officers in opposing the leave application.
The judge also observed that Najib’s contempt application relied heavily on subsequent events, including the introduction of the alleged document at the Court of Appeal stage.
She pointed out that at the time Najib filed his leave application for judicial review, he himself was uncertain of the document’s existence.
Justice Loke further ruled that the contempt application was filed too late, as it was only submitted in May 2025, nearly a year after the Attorney-General’s Chambers raised objections to Najib’s judicial review in April 2024.
She stated that the significant lapse of time undermined the strength of Najib’s claim and did not justify the extraordinary remedy of committal.
“I am of the view that the applicant has failed to establish a prima facie case of contempt,“ Justice Loke concluded while dismissing the application with RM20,000 costs.
The Federal Court had previously dismissed the Attorney-General’s appeal regarding the purported existence of the additional document on August 13, directing the matter to be heard on its merits in the High Court.
Najib is seeking a mandamus order compelling the respondents to confirm and disclose the existence of the purported document dated January 29, 2024.
The former Pekan MP also seeks an order that, if the additional document exists, all or any respondents be compelled to enforce it immediately and transfer him from Kajang Prison to his residence in Kuala Lumpur.
Najib has been serving his sentence at Kajang Prison since August 23, 2022, following his conviction for misappropriating RM42 million from SRC International Sdn Bhd.
His prison sentence was initially 12 years with a RM210 million fine, but the Pardons Board halved his prison term to six years and reduced his fine to RM50 million following his petition for a royal pardon. – Bernama