KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 6): The Attorney General's Chambers has no basis to delay Datuk Seri Najib Razak's house arrest as the former prime minister has met all the condition set by the king, said lead defense counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.
The senior lawyer said in a statement late on Friday that it is "executive overreach" for the AGC to suspend the king's order.
“Every condition His Majesty set has been met, and there is no lawful reason for our client to remain in Penjara Kajang a moment longer.
“We therefore demand that our client be released immediately into house arrest at his residence, as his majesty has ordered and the High Court has directed,” he said.
Shafee said that conditions set under the royal prerogative of mercy granted by His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, King of Malaysia, on Sept 18, have been satisfied, including payment of the RM50 million fine to the High Court.
He said the attorney general is also a member of the Pardons Board, but had raised no interpretation issues in the past seven weeks since the announcement.
Shafee accused the AGC of disregarding the king’s orders.
“We view the AGC Statement as a disregard of His Majesty’s order. Nothing in it provides any basis for keeping our client in Kajang Prison,” Shafee stated.
“To claim the power to suspend His Majesty’s order by media statement is, in our view, executive overreach.”
The statement was issued after the AGC said Najib should remain in prison until it could clarify what does the settlement of the RM50 million fine actually meant.
The AGC said one passage in the Sept 18 Pardons Board order needed to be clarified, as payment of the RM50 million fine could be interpreted to mean either Najib gets to complete his jail time under house arrest or the end of the sentence.
Najib has been in prison since 2022 after he exhausted all court appeals to overturn a 2020 conviction for siphoning RM42 million from SRC International Sdn Bhd. He was originally sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment and fined RM210 million, but following an appeal to the Pardons Board, the jail time was halved and the fine was reduced to RM50 million in 2024. This means Najib jail time ends in August 2028
Najib made a second bid for clemency, which the Pardons Board granted on Sept 18. It was widely reported that Pardons Board allowed Najib to spend the remainder of the jail time under house arrest if he paid the RM50 million fine.
Umno on Friday paid the fine for its former president Najib, who is still popular in the party.
'Unconstitutional to hold Najib in prison'
Shafee said keeping Najib in jail after the fine has been paid violated Article 5(1) of the Federal Constitution, which protects the right to liberty.
He said the order from the king and the High Court was directed to prison authorities.
“It is however not unlikely that the Attorney General or the higher up political entities would deny having directed the prison authorities to act as such,” he said.
Shafee added that Najib must be released immediately and that the AGC withdraws its statement.
“…if it (The AGC) maintains any question over the Orders, to take it to the High Court, where we will answer it. The AGC cannot hold our client in Penjara Kajang while it does so,” he said.