Najib receiving 'special treatment'? No such thing, Saifuddin says

Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail has denied allegations that Najib Abdul Razak was receiving “special treatment” at Kajang Prison.

“No one receives any special treatment in the prison, including Najib.

“I stand by the statement issued by the Prisons Department director-general as they are the ones looking after the former prime minister 24 hours a day.

“The Prisons Department has its own officers and blocks… and they monitor Najib just like how they keep an eye on other inmates,” he said at a press conference held at the Home Ministry’s office in Putrajaya today.

Asked about claims that Najib was not donning prisoners’ attire in jail, Saifuddin said he was not aware of the matter.

On March 28, preacher Wan Ji Wan Hussin, who was recently released after serving his sentence there, dismissed speculations that Najib was not being held at the Kajang Prison.

However, Wan Ji said the former Pekan MP was receiving “very special treatment”.

“He (Najib) does not wear the prisoner garb. He wears ‘normal’ clothes like one would at home.

“It’s not that he’s clad in a suit (all the time). He just wears normal clothes, while I wore prisoner garb throughout,” Wan Ji said, further claiming that Najib was housed in a “special block” in the prison.

“He is special. Not just special, but ‘very special’,” the former religious adviser to the Penang chief minister told Malaysiakini in an interview.

A day later, Prisons Department director-general Nordin Muhamad refuted Wan Ji’s statement and stressed that every inmate is treated equally and no “special treatment” is given to anyone.

He added that all prisoners are managed in accordance with the set rules and standard operating procedures.

“This includes Najib who is serving his sentence in Kajang prison. He remains subject to the rules and Prison Act 1995,” Sinar Harian reported him as saying.