Former MCA vice-president Ti Lian Ker was more tongue-in-cheek. He said the decision to reduce the sentence was proof that the nation was serious about combating corruption. “Corruption is now a more serious crime than sodomy and murder, which are pardonable, with people convicted of these crimes pardoned in the past.”

In the 1990s, a former minister, Mokhtar Hashim, was freed following an application for a pardon after being convicted of murder. His death sentence was initially commuted to life imprisonment after an application for clemency. A subsequent application to the pardons board resulted in his sentence being further reduced to a fixed jail term, which eventually saw him freed.

Earlier today, the Federal Territories Pardons Board announced that Najib’s prison sentence was reduced from 12 years to six, and a fine of RM210 million reduced to RM50 million. The board said Najib would be released on Aug 23, 2028 or a year later if the fine was not paid.

Source : FMT

We were played, Umno Youth says after Najib decision

In a cryptic post on social media, Youth leader Dr Akmal Saleh said the ‘time has come’ but refused to elaborate further when contacted.

Umno Youth chief Dr Akmal Saleh has claimed that the party was taken for a ride following the Pardons Board decision to reduce the prison sentence on former prime minister Najib Razak, who is also a former Umno president.

“We were played. Don’t think we don’t know what happened. The time has come,” he said in a cryptic post on Facebook.

When contacted, Akmal, who is the Merlimau assemblyman, said only certain people would know what he was referring to. “If the cap fits, wear it,” he said and refused to elaborate further.

His comment was made soon after the Federal Territories Pardons Board said Najib’s prison sentence had been reduced from 12 years to six and that he will be released on Aug 23, 2028.

A fine of RM210 million was reduced to RM50 million. However, a year will be added to the jail sentence if he fails to pay the fine.

Najib was Umno president and Barisan Nasional chairman from March 2009 to May 2018. He resigned from both party positions two days after BN was defeated in the 2018 general election by Pakatan Harapan.

Source : FMT

Former Malaysian premier Najib Razak, who was convicted of graft over the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal, could be released by 2028 after his jail sentence was halved, prompting uproar from critics who called on the government to explain the decision.

The pardons board, chaired by Malaysia’s king, said on Friday it made the decision this week after reviewing an application for a royal pardon by Najib, who began serving a 12-year jail term in August 2022. It did not give a reason.

The reduction in Najib’s sentence comes amid accusations that current Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is backsliding on promised reforms, after a string of corruption cases linked to Najib and leaders with ties to his party were dropped last year.

Anwar has long campaigned on an anti-corruption platform, but joined hands with Najib’s graft-tainted party, the United National Malays Organisation (UMNO), to form a government in November 2022, after an election that resulted in a hung parliament.

The board’s decision on Monday was among the last acts of former king Al-Sultan Abdullah of Pahang state, who ended his five-year reign under Malaysia’s rotating system of monarchy this week. He was succeeded on Wednesday by Sultan Ibrahim from Johor in southern Malaysia.

Anwar said he respected the king’s decision, adding that the pardons process was “beyond the prime minister or the government”.

Other corruption trials faced by Najib will continue, Anwar said.

“At the same time, Najib has every right to again appeal to the king. The process has to be respected,” he said in an interview with broadcaster Al Jazeera on Friday.

Malaysia’s king plays a ceremonial role and acts largely on the advice of the prime minister and cabinet. But the monarch can grant clemency to convicts under discretionary powers granted by the federal constitution, with advice from a pardons board.

Source : Reuters