KUALA LUMPUR, April 27 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has withdrawn his appeal against the High Court’s decision dismissing an application for judicial review over an addendum order that allegedly allowed him to serve the remainder of his prison sentence under house arrest.
Following the withdrawal of the notice of appeal, Najib, 72, remains in Kajang Prison after being convicted of embezzling RM42 million from SRC International Sdn Bhd. The former Pekan MP has been serving his sentence at the prison since August 23, 2022.
The High Court originally sentenced him to 12 years in prison and fined him RM210 million, with the decision later upheld by the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court.
However, Najib’s petition for royal pardon on September 2, 2022, resulted in the Pardons Board reducing his prison sentence to six years and lowering his fine to RM50 million.
Through a notice from law firm Messrs Shafee & Co dated April 2 and obtained by the media today, it stated that the firm had discontinued and withdrawn the appeal without liberty to re-file and without any order as to costs. No reasons were given for the withdrawal.
On April 14, Court of Appeal deputy registrar Adilah Mohtar recorded the notice of termination and struck Najib’s notice of appeal.
Najib sought an order that if the addendum order is proven to exist, all or any of the respondents should be compelled to enforce it immediately and transfer him from Kajang Prison to his residence in Kuala Lumpur to serve the remainder of his prison sentence.
In the application, Najib named seven respondents — the home minister, the Prisons Department commissioner-general, the attorney-general, the Pardons Board for the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya, the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform), the director-general of the Legal Affairs Division of the Prime Minister’s Department, and Malaysian government.
On December 22, 2025, the High Court here, which heard the full merits of the case, dismissed Najib’s application after finding that the decree was not discussed or decided during the Pardons Board meeting on January 29, 2024.
On August 13, 2025, the Federal Court returned the case to the High Court to hear its merits before a new judge after dismissing the attorney-general’s appeal against the Court of Appeal’s decision on January 6, 2025.
The Court of Appeal in a 2-1 majority has returned Najib’s case to the High Court for a hearing on its merits.
Justices Datuk Azhahari Kamal Ramli and Datuk Seri Mohd Firuz Jaffril in a majority decision allowed the former prime minister’s appeal to overturn the High Court’s decision on July 3, 2024, which dismissed his application for leave to challenge the existence of the addendum.
However, Datuk Azizah Nawawi, who headed the panel, dissented and ruled that there was no merit in Najib’s appeal.
Meanwhile, Najib has also withdrawn his appeal against the High Court’s decision here which dismissed his application for leave to commence committal proceedings against former attorney-general Tan Sri Ahmad Terrirudin Mohd Salleh for contempt of court.
In a letter dated April 9, it was stated that the appeal had been struck off the list of civil appeals under Rule 9(3) of the Court of Appeal Rules 1994.
On September 4, 2025, the High Court dismissed Najib’s application after finding that the former prime minister had failed to prove a prima facie case of contempt of court.
On May 21, 2025, Najib filed the application against Terrirudin, who is now a Federal Court judge, over the issue of an addendum order that allegedly allowed Najib to serve the remainder of his prison sentence at home.
