‘Don’t take us for fools’: Malaysians slam Najib’s reduction in jail time
‘Don’t take us for fools’: Malaysians slam Najib’s reduction in jail time
On Wednesday, the Kuala Lumpur High Court set a date of June 5 to make a decision on whether Najib can proceed with an application to be freed on house arrest, his lawyers said.
Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, head of Najib’s legal team, argued on Wednesday that Malaysia’s previous king had issued a supplementary decree through official channels ordering that Najib be released from prison and placed under house arrest, but the order was not enforced.
“Not only did they not enforce [the order], they concealed it … you cannot dispute the king’s order,” Shafee told reporters outside the court after a closed-door hearing before a judge.
Najib argued in that application that the supplementary decree had been issued on the same day that the pardons board announced his reprieve.
The decision to slash his sentence was made by a pardons board chaired by Malaysia’s then-king, Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah, in one of his final acts as the country’s monarch – raising questions over the impunity Malaysia’s rich and powerful seemingly enjoy, as well as the influence politicians can still wield from behind bars.
You cannot dispute the king’s order
The reduction of Najib’s sentence is emblematic of a justice system that prioritises the welfare of Malaysia’s elite while those without the means to pester for their release are left to languish in prison, critics say.
“The country cannot give a message that politicians who commit offences and are found guilty … can take ‘short cuts’ to escape punishment, as though there are two sets of laws for the laymen and the elite,” electoral reform group Bersih said in a statement at the time.
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The legacy of Malaysia’s 1MDB scandal on politics and corruption-fighting
The legacy of Malaysia’s 1MDB scandal on politics and corruption-fighting
Najib was convicted in 2020 of seven counts of corruption and abuse of power involving 42 million ringgit funnelled through SRC International, a former unit of state fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd.
He was jailed two years later after the federal court threw out his last attempt at overturning his sentence.
‘Contemptuous’: Malaysia’s Najib seeks court order to remove Netflix’s 1MDB show
‘Contemptuous’: Malaysia’s Najib seeks court order to remove Netflix’s 1MDB show
Najib still faces at least three other trials linked to 1MDB, from which at least US$4.5 billion is thought to have been looted, according to Malaysian investigators and the US Department of Justice.
The US justice department has described the multibillion-dollar scandal at 1MDB, the state fund founded in 2009 just months after Najib became prime minister, as the largest case of kleptocracy ever uncovered.