KUALA LUMPUR, August 23 — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad said that Datuk Seri Najib Razak might be able to receive a royal pardon for his conviction over the 1MDB scandal like what had happened to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim previously for his sodomy charges.

"Suppose he is convicted and he’s jailed — of course he’s going to ask for a pardon.

"There is that 50-50 chance that he will succeed in getting a pardon and returning to politics.

"He will come back and he wants to become the prime minister again,” said Tun Dr Mahathir in a recent interview with Bloomberg.

In Tun Dr Mahathir’s second term as prime minister, dozens of criminal charges were filed against Najib for corruption, money laundering and criminal breach of trust.

Najib was subsequently convicted by the High Court to a 12 years imprisonment and RM420 million fine for mishandling funds belonging to SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB.

He is currently in his final appealing process at the Federal Court this week after the Court of Appeal upheld the High Court’s verdict in December 2021.

Federal Court’s hearing will run until August 26, and if the Federal Court upholds his convictions, he will have to serve his sentence before he can start applying for judicial review or royal pardon from the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.