KUALA LUMPUR, April 7 — The Umno supreme council today decided it will appeal to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to consider pardoning its former party president Datuk Seri Najib Razak over his conviction for misappropriating RM42 million from a former 1MDB unit.
Umno secretary-general Datuk Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said the decision was made following the supreme council’s meeting today, which had discussed several matters including Najib’s SRC International case.
The discussion touched on the Federal Court’s 4-1 decision last Friday to reject Najib’s review bid or bid to challenge his SRC conviction and sentence.
Asyraf Wajdi said the Umno supreme council noted party members’ sadness and anxiety over the allegedly “unfair” decisions in SRC case, referring to the sole dissenting judge, Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Datuk Abdul Rahman Sebli’s judgment that Najib did not receive a fair hearing during his final appeal and should then be freed.
Abdul Rahman’s judgment is only a dissenting judgment, however, and was not binding; the majority judgment by the four other judges on the Federal Court panel effectively upheld Najib’s SRC International conviction and the resulting 12-year prison sentence and RM210 million fine.
Today, Asyraf Wajdi said the Umno supreme council had received a memorandum from all 191 Umno divisions, including from the party’s Wanita, Puteri and youth wings.
He said the memorandum urged Umno’s top leadership to defend Najib as the former party “president and former prime minister who had contributed much to the people and country”.
He said the Umno supreme council would petition the Agong to “consider a full pardon” for Najib, in line with the monarch’s powers under Article 42(1) of the Federal Constitution to grant pardon for crimes.
“Therefore, the supreme council unanimously agrees to seek an audience to present an appeal letter to His Majesty Seri Paduka Baginda Yang di-Pertuan Agong together with the memorandum signed by all of Umno’s leadership from the 191 divisions including Wanita and the Pemuda and Puteri Umno wings,” he said in a statement today.
Asyraf Wajdi said the Umno supreme council also decided that the party’s annual general assembly for 2023 would be held from June 7 to June 10 this year.
On August 23, 2022, Najib began serving his 12-year prison sentence in the SRC case, where he was convicted of criminal breach of trust, power abuse and money laundering in relation to SRC’s RM42 million.
Just days after he became a prisoner, Najib had on September 2, 2022 filed his application for a royal pardon in the SRC case. This bid for pardon has yet to be decided on.
