KUALA LUMPUR – Convicted former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak will likely file a new petition for a royal pardon, his lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said today.
He confirmed this to the press at the Kuala Lumpur courthouse today.
“We are seriously thinking about another petition for pardon. Full pardon. We’re waiting for the right timing.”
“It wouldn’t be so soon, as the current Yang di-Pertuan Agong has yet to warm his seat,” he told reporters at the courthouse.
Shafee said the Agong’s prerogative on the sentence reduction was non-justiciable and that his discretion was absolute.
The immediate past Agong, Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah of Pahang, had been on the Pardons Board that reduced Najib’s sentence at its January 29 meeting, a day before he ended his reign. The new Agong is Johor’s Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar, who ascended the throne on January 31.
The lawyer slammed the “clumsy” press statement issued by the Federal Territories Pardons Board through the legal affairs unit of the Prime Minister’s Department on February 2.
He said someone in the Pardons Board secretariat “or whoever crafted the statement wasn’t doing the arithmetic”, in reference to a sentence in the press statement that said Najib had been granted a 50% reduction in his jail sentence and fine.
In actual fact, only his jail sentence was halved, from 12 years to six. The original fine of RM210 million was reduced to RM50 million.
“Fifty percent out of RM210 million is not RM50 million! It was 50% on imprisonment and RM50 million fine, not 50% on both,” Shafee said.
Najib’s original sentence and fine was ordered by the high court in July 2020 for misappropriating RM42 million of SRC International Sdn Bhd’s funds.
The Federal Court upheld the conviction and sentence in 2022, and he began serving his prison term on August 23, 2020.
Under his reduced sentence, Najib will be released on August 23, 2028 if he pays the RM50 million fine, but will remain incarcerated for a year longer, until August 23, 2029, if he fails to do so. However, he is also eligible to apply for parole next year, after serving half of his reduced sentence.
Najib, who was also previously finance minister and oversaw 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), still has three other court cases pending.
They are for alleged corruption involving RM2.3 billion of 1MDB funds, which is currently in the trial stage; misappropriation of RM6.6 billion in relation to the International Petroleum Investment Company, for which trial is to begin in June; and money-laundering charges involving RM27 million of SRC International funds, which are to be heard in September.
Shafee today also claimed that detailed discussions by the Pardons Board on Najib’s pardon petition took place on December 8 last year. The lawyer alleged that the king later wanted to grant a full pardon.
“It (the discussion) was going in a particular direction, which I am not entitled to say.
“But what happened, subsequently, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong said he will make a decision later on, instead of on December 8. So he adjourned the matter, twice, till January 29 this year.
“So what happened on January 29 is that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong was thinking of (granting) a full pardon.
“I am told of this and I am confident that this happened. Otherwise, I wouldn’t dare say,” Shafee claimed.
He then alleged the board decided in an “irregular” manner, with the Agong asking four of its non-permanent members to vote.
“So four empty vote papers were passed around for the non-permanent members to vote either yes or no. The result came back, but I did not know what was the result.
“Then the king decided on the alternative, which is what we all know today,” said Shafee.
Based on this, Shafee said the reason for Najib’s defence in making another request for pardon is because “we don’t think the Pardons Board, without denoting any blame to any particular person or persons, I don’t think the PB operated the way the constitution expects it to operate.
“The king merely hears opinion and advice, but he decides on his own. I mean, he’s not the king for nothing. It is his prerogative of mercy.” – February 7, 2024