PUTRAJAYA, Mon – Najib Razak has succeeded in obtaining leave from the Court of Appeal in a split 2-1 decision in his appeal relating to his claims of a royal addendum order that would allow him to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest.

In the majority decision, the appellate court overturned the High Court’s dismissal of Najib’s application for leave to initiate judicial review over the prison time imposed on him in the SRC International Sdn Bhd trial.

Justice Mohd Firuz Jaffril, who read the majority decision, said that the issue of hearsay could no longer stand with the new evidence adduced in a supporting affidavit filed by Najib’s son, Mohd Nizar.

He said that a judicial review application only needed to show that the applicant has a case to argue, premised on the fact that the applicant’s interests or rights had been aggrieved and that the application was not frivolous or vexatious.

“We are therefore minded to allow this appeal. We order the case to be remitted to the High Court for the hearing of the substantive judicial review,” he said.

The other judge who made up the majority decision is Justice Azhahari Kamal Ramli.

The court also allowed Najib’s application to adduce new evidence in the form of a letter from the Majlis Kesultanan Pahang, which is now admissible through Mohd Nizar’s supporting affidavit.