Mandatory waiting period for pardon application ‘utter nonsense’, says Shafee

Former prime minister Najib Razak’s lawyer, Shafee Abdullah said his client felt that the court had failed him by not giving him a fair trial.

KUALA LUMPUR: The supposed mandatory waiting period before applying for a royal pardon is “utter nonsense”, says lawyer Shafee Abdullah.

Shafee, who is former prime minister Najib Razak’s lawyer, said existing laws – the Prisons Regulations 1953, in particular – do not stipulate any mandatory waiting period before a prisoner can apply for a pardon.

According to Shafee, Najib said the court had failed him by not giving him a fair trial, thus he should have been pardoned from day one of his incarceration.

“That was his argument. So this question about whether you must serve three years or four years before you see the daylight of a pardon is utter nonsense because even the legislation does not say that.

“The Prisons Regulations 1953 say you have the right to apply for a pardon as soon as practicable,” Shafee said at a forum titled: “Justice and Mercy: A Forum on Reforms to the Pardons Board in Malaysia”.

In 2022, Malaysiakini reported former attorney-general Tommy Thomas as saying that the one-third of a prison sentence stipulation, before one could apply for a pardon, was more of a convention than the rule.

However, Thomas, who brought the charges against Najib in the SRC International trial, said the convention was still applied as otherwise the Pardons Board would be swamped with applications.

The board only has time to consider around 10 applications at each meeting. The board usually meets only three or four times a year.

On Feb 2, the Pardons Board halved Najib’s sentence from a 12-year prison term to six years for misappropriating RM42 million of SRC International funds.

The board also reduced his initial fine of RM210 million to RM50 million.