KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 25): Despite the announcement of imprisoned former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's conditional pardon last week, the 73-year-old has yet to receive the official pardon letter from the King.
Najib's lawyer, Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, said this when met by the press on Friday, adding that the delay could further hamper the house arrest process.
“Up until today [we have not got the letter]. This is the eighth day. It's strange. When the [King] has made a decision under his prerogative powers, the most important person is Datuk Seri Najib, because he is the person subject to imprisonment, subject to house arrest; yet up until today, he has not received the letter.
“We don't know why the letter is taking so long; even the [Prisons Department] hasn't received it. So, as long as we haven't received it, it will hamper all the steps we need to take, because we don't know what conditions, if any, may have been set down,” Shafee said.
The Federal Territories Pardons Board, under the King, Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar, had announced last Friday (Sept 18) that the ex-PM is allowed to serve the remainder of his reduced prison term under house arrest — on the condition that he first pays the RM50 million fine.
In the SRC International case for which Najib is currently serving time, the Federal Court had upheld Najib's conviction for abuse of power, criminal breach of trust, and money laundering and his 12 year-imprisonment and a RM210 million fine.
However, in 2024, the Pardons Board under then-King Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah had reduced this to six years’ imprisonment and RM50 million.
Najib has yet to pay the fine, and the attorney general has yet to announce the specific guidelines for Najib's house arrest, given that Malaysia does not currently have laws that govern house arrest.
Shafee says he himself does not wish to speculate, as information is limited
On Friday, Shafee also said that he has been inundated with questions since the announcement, but he has not answered them because he himself is unclear on many issues linked to Najib's second pardon and did not wish to speculate on the matter.
“As of today, we only know a limited amount of information,” he said.
He added that there were so many "armchair experts" commenting and discussing on the conditions of the house arrests, some of which were not logical.
“[Some have asked] if his house will be have perimeter barbed-wire fencing, like the perimeter fence for prisoners of war, and so on. All sorts of things.
“There are too many experts — all of them armchair experts — making statements that are sometimes too...how would I say, shocking, completely lacking in logic. Some are reasonable,” he said.
Shafee said that house arrest is not odd as the system already allows for licence of conditional release or a limited house arrest for prisoners to, for example, visit their families during celebrations.