Don’t shift pardon decision to PM, says Tengku Zafrul

The senior political adviser to the prime minister rejects claims that Anwar Ibrahim was responsible for the decision to pardon Najib Razak.

Tengku Zafrul Aziz said critics of the decision should not shift the discretion held by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to the prime minister ‘just because you want to blame the prime minister’. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA:

Tengku Zafrul Aziz has criticised claims that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was responsible for the decision to grant clemency for Najib Razak and clarified that the former prime minister was granted a conditional pardon, not a full one.

Tengku Zafrul, who is the prime minister’s senior political adviser, said the prime minister has no power to determine whether a pardon is granted to someone convicted by a court.

“Article 42 of the Federal Constitution assigns the power of pardon to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong through the pardons board. Are you questioning the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s power to grant pardons? We can have differences of opinion and views over the decision, but not to the point that constitutional facts are twisted solely for the sake of politics,” he said.

Tengku Zafrul said Najib’s pardon was conditional and that he would serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest “dependent on the set conditions”.

Critics of the decision should “not shift the discretion held by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to the prime minister just because you want to blame the prime minister”, he said.

Under the conditional pardon, Najib will serve the remainder of his six-year jail sentence under house arrest until Aug 23, 2028, subject to the payment of his RM50 million fine in the SRC International case, failing which he must serve an additional year. - FMT