AS UMNO deems the partial royal pardon of incarcerated former premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak as ‘earth-shatteringly dismal’ till it has to delay its Bumiputera Economic Congress Colloquium scheduled this morning (Feb 3) in lieu of an emergency supreme council meeting at 11am, questions have been raised about validity of the Pardon’s Board decision.
Lawyer-cum-human rights activist Charles Hector reckoned that as its name suggests, it should be the ‘immediate past’ Yang di-Pertuan Agong (YDPA) who held the ultimate power and right – as opposed to the Pardons Board of Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya – to publicly make known his decision.
“It should be the Agong and not the Pardons Board that decide and announce … But the Agong never announced his decision which should have been done before his term ended. Why was it delayed? Now, does the new Agong agree (with the partial pardon)?” he penned in his latest blog.
“There will be no problem if the Agong announced his decision before his term came to an end. However, he never made any public announcement or proclamation which he would have to since this was the question of pardon of a former prime minister (PM).”.
Given such development, Hector suggested that the entire pardon process or exercise should start all over again.
“Hence, reasonably we may have to start from the beginning with a new petition of appeal with a ‘new’ Pardons Board … Should the new Agong simply accept and just grant pardon to Najib (or deny pardon) even if he was not present (at the Pardons Board meeting on Jan 29) or preside over it?”
Hector further queried quantum of the fine “which interestingly was reduced more than 50%” which came alongside the halving of the former Pekan MP’s jail sentence from 12 years to six years.
“His sentence said he (Najib) has to pay RM210 mil and now the Pardons Board has reduced the amount to RM50 mil. And if he does not pay the RM50 million, only one-year additional jail term for such a sum,” argued the co-founder of NGO Malaysians Against Death Penalty & Torture (MADPET).
“Personally, the fine should never be reduced as the five times the amount involved in the crime committed serves as a deterrent in law (Najib was found guilty of all seven charges related to the misappropriation of RM42 mil of SRC International Sdn Bhd funds).
“Now, for such a criminal, there is a likelihood that there may be many more similar crimes – many of which may never come to court as it is difficult for prosecution to secure sufficient evidence to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt.” – Feb 3, 2024
Main pic credit: UMNO Online
