Malaysia 1MDB scandal: ex-PM Najib’s royal pardon ruling expected this month
- The Pardons Board is set to meet later this month and is likely to decide on Najib Razak’s application for a royal pardon, local media said
- The former PM is serving a 12-year jail term for graft linked to state fund 1MDB scandal which US and Malaysian investigators estimate US$4.5 billion was stolen
Reuters was unable to independently verify the report.
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“Our client and us are in the dark about the state of our client’s petition for pardon,” Najib’s lawyer, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, said in a statement on Wednesday.
Malaysian Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil told reporters the matter was not discussed during a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, “but we cannot get ahead of the process, and we leave it to the Pardons Board as it is under the King.”
Government spokesperson Fahmi Fadzil, who is the communications minister, declined direct comment on the report, telling reporters any decision on Najib’s application was the prerogative of the king and the Pardons Board.
The office of the attorney general, a member of the Board, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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The Pardon Board’s reported meeting this month would come right before the current King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah steps down from the throne on January 31, as part of the nation’s rotational monarchy.
The current king hails from the same state as Najib. He will hand over the monarch role to Sultan Ibrahim of Johor.
Najib’s lawyers formally requested a royal pardon from the king in 2022. They argue he had not been tried fairly, his lead defence counsel, Shafee, said last month.
“I am confident in terms of merit, he is not wrong,” Shafee said then. “In terms of procedure, he was deprived of a fair trial.”
The king plays a largely ceremonial role in Malaysia, but can pardon convicted people among discretionary powers granted by the federal constitution.
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First convicted in 2020, Najib started his prison term in August 2022 after Malaysia’s top court rejected his final appeal, making him the first premier in the country’s history to be jailed. He also faces other trials on corruption charges.
Should Najib’s bid for a royal pardon be granted, it could shorten his sentence, and raise further doubts on Anwar’s commitment to fighting graft.
Under Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia has been focused on recovering much of the billions of dollars looted from the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund. The Southeast Asian nation dropped all criminal charges against Goldman Sachs over its role in the scandal in a July 2020 settlement, in exchange for a US$2.5 billion cash payment and for the guaranteed return of US$1.4 billion of seized 1MDB assets.
Anwar’s promise for reforms had fuelled hopes that he would be able to repair Malaysia’s international standing after he was elected to the top job in 2022.
