KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 7 — You may have heard that Datuk Seri Najib Razak won a case at the Court of Appeal yesterday regarding a "house arrest” document, but what does it mean for the former prime minister?

Below are explanations explaining the significance of this decision.

Will Najib serve out his prison time at home now?

No. Najib is still serving his sentence at Kajang prison where he has been a prisoner for two years and four months now.

Najib was imprisoned on August 23, 2022, after the Federal Court upheld his 12-year custodial sentence and conviction for criminal breach of trust, power abuse, and money laundering over the misappropriation of SRC

What about Najib’s claim that he should be under house arrest? (Hint: No final decision yet.)

Najib has yet to successfully obtain a court order to compel the Malaysian government to put him under house arrest.

He has also yet to get official confirmation of whether a "supplementary order” issued by the former King for house arrest does exist.

At present, he is still pursuing his court challenge to prove his claims that the previous Yang di-Pertuan Agong had issued a decree for him to serve the remainder of his reduced sentence under house arrest.

TLDR: Najib’s victory at the Court of Appeal just meant that he will now be able to continue his judicial review

What is the alleged house arrest "addendum”?

On February 2, 2024, the Federal Territories Pardons Board halved Najib’s 12-year sentence to six years and reduced his RM210 million fine to RM50 million, but did not mention any "house arrest” order.

The 16th Yang di-Pertuan Agong — Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah — had chaired the Pardons Board’s January 29, 2024 meeting on Najib’s pardon application.

Najib later claimed he was informed of an additional order allegedly made by the former Agong during the January 29 meeting allowing him to serve the remainder of his prison sentence under "house arrest”, although the February 2 statement issued by the Pardons Board omitted any mention of a "house arrest” order.

You have probably seen this alleged additional order referred to as an "addendum” or "supplementary order”. It all means the same thing: a document allegedly added on to the Pardons Board’s decision.

How did this end up in the Court of Appeal?

In April 2024, Najib filed his court challenge against the Malaysian government and the Pardons Board, asking the court to compel them to verify the purported "house arrest” addendum actually exists and execute it.

A total of seven respondents were named in Najib’s suit, namely the home minister, the Commissioner General of Prisons, the Attorney General, the Federal Territories Pardons Board, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform), the Director General of Legal Affairs Division and the Malaysian government.

Najib is also seeking a court order to get the Malaysian government to carry out the alleged house arrest "addendum”.

Because Najib filed his court challenge through a judicial review application, he needed to get the High Court’s leave or permission for his court case to be heard.

The High Court in July 2024 dismissed Najib’s application for leave to have his court challenge heard. He then filed an appeal.

What was the Court of Appeal’s decision?

The Court of Appeal’s decision was split 2-1, meaning two of the three judges ruled in Najib’s favour, while one judge disagreed.

In the majority decision, the Court of Appeal decided that Najib should be given leave to have his court challenge heard by the High Court and for a new judge to preside over it.

Why did the Court of Appeal rule in Najib’s favour?

Here’s a key reason why Najib failed at the High Court previously: The High Court said he was relying on "hearsay” evidence to prove that the alleged "addendum” actually exists.

Najib had failed to get the Malaysian government to confirm that the "addendum” exists, so he had used court testimony from two individuals as evidence — Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Pahang Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail.

But because both Zahid and Wan Rosdy claimed to have heard about the alleged "addendum” from another person instead of finding out about it themselves personally, this was considered as "hearsay”.

The Court of Appeal yesterday accepted the bid by Najib’s son, Datuk Muhammad Nizar, to enter new evidence to his father’s case.

This came in the form of the Pahang palace’s letter dated January 4, 2025 that confirmed the existence of a "supplementary order” for Najib to be placed under house arrest, as well as an unsigned "supplementary order” issued by Al-Sultan Abdullah on January 29, 2024.

Since Nizar said he could not apply to the court to add on this alleged new evidence without first getting the Pahang Ruler’s consent and since the consent was only obtained on December 4, 2024, the Court of Appeal allowed Nizar’s bid.

The Court of Appeal also allowed Nizar’s application to add the new evidence, as the Malaysian government has not filed court documents to challenge the existence or authenticity of the addendum.

Based on the new evidence brought in by Nizar, the Court of Appeal thus decided that the High Court should hear Najib’s case.