Bar’s judicial review on Najib ‘pardon’ questions king’s power, says lawyer

The Malaysian Bar is seeking a judicial review to challenge the pardons board’s decision to halve former prime minister Najib Razak’s jail sentence and reduce his fine.

PETALING JAYA: A lawyer has criticised the Malaysian Bar’s decision to file a judicial review challenging the Federal Territories Pardons Board’s (FTPB) decision to commute Najib Razak’s jail sentence and reduce his fine, saying it indirectly questions the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s authority to grant pardons.

Describing the application as “stupid”, Shamsher Singh Thind said the power to pardon rests with the king, not the FTPB, although the king is bound to follow the board’s advice in practice.

“So, if you are not happy with the pardon (albeit half) given to Najib Razak, then you are not happy with the power exercised by the king.

“The fact that (you do not) say so does not change anything. You are still questioning the king,” he said in a Facebook post.

He added that the proposal for a judicial review lacked participation from lawyers, as “22,146 lawyers didn’t even bother to attend to vote” despite 238 lawyers endorsing the application with only one in opposition.

In the application filed by solicitors Messrs Amir & Rajpal Ghai in the High Court on April 26, the Bar, which represents tens of thousands of lawyers practising in Peninsular Malaysia, sought a declaration that the board’s collective decision was unlawful, unconstitutional and void.

It also requested an order of certiorari against the board to quash the FTPB’s decision.

On Feb 2, the board announced that Najib’s prison sentence had been reduced from 12 years to six and his fine from RM210 million to RM50 million.

Najib, 70, is currently serving his sentence at Kajang prison and is to be released on Aug 23, 2028.

The Bar also sought a permanent injunction restraining Najib or his agents from submitting any application for pardon, reprieve or respite to the board until all criminal charges against him have been exhausted.

Shamser slammed the request for an injunction, saying matters related to the pardon process are non-justiciable.

“A lawyer’s job is to defend accused persons in court, not to get them convicted and sentenced,” he said.

“What the Malaysian Bar is doing is going against the interest of lawyers.”

He also asked why the Bar was “doing the job of the attorney-general” (AG), who sits on the pardons board.

“So, if the AG is okay to grant Najib a pardon (or half of it), why is the Bar reacting like cacing kepanasan (so vehemently)?” he asked.