Stop speculating on royal addendum, Azalina tells Umno members

Stop speculating on royal addendum, Azalina tells Umno members


Published: Jan 12, 2025 6:54 PM


Summary

• Umno information chief Azalina urges party members to stop speculations regarding the royal addendum on Najib Razak's jail sentence.

• The law minister says the case is now in court and they should leave it to the judiciary to decide.

Umno information chief Azalina Othman Said urged the party members to stop any speculation regarding the royal addendum on Najib Abdul Razak's jail sentence.

The minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reform) said the matter will be heard by the Kuala Lumpur High Court soon and thus they should leave it to the judiciary.

"Since the Court of Appeal has decided to return the matter to the High Court (for hearing), I want to ask all party members to leave this issue to the court.

"The High Court will set the hearing dates and I call all (Umno members) to stop speculating because this is the time for the judiciary to play its role and decide.

"We also do not want to commit sub judice, because when a matter has become a court case, making all sorts of comments would not be fair to everyone," Azalina said, as quoted by Umno Online.

Adding further, she said the Appellate Court in its ruling last week has confirmed the existence of the royal addendum, which ordered for the former prime minister to serve the remainder of his jail sentence as a house arrest.

The next process would be for the High Court to decide whether the addendum is legally valid, Azalina stressed.

"This (Court of Appeal decision) has nothing to do with whether the order is valid, it was only on its existence.

"Validity is another issue, which is a legal matter, and I believe the court will summon everyone who was involved in the process.

"So I would like to ask party members to let the court make its decision after all facts are presented by the parties involved," the Pengerang MP said.

Last Monday, the Court of Appeal in a split 2-1 decision allowed Najib to commence a judicial review to compel the home minister and the government to enforce the alleged decree by the previous Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

The panel presided by judge Azizah Nawawi ordered the matter be reverted to the Kuala Lumpur High Court for hearing of the merits of the judicial review.