BRACE FOR BACKLASH FROM UMNO, WILL ANWAR BE ABLE TO QUELL THEIR VILE MELODRAMA THAT IS BOUND TO CREATE GRAVE POLITICAL UNEASE – FINALLY, A BIT MORE CLARITY FROM PARDONS BOARD – NAJIB’S APPEAL TO BE CONSIDERED ONLY AT ‘APPROPRIATE TIME, ACCORDING TO LAW & REGULATIONS IN PLACE’ – BUT GIVEN THE MURKINESS IN PARDONS SYSTEM, WILL ANWAR & UNITY GOVT DARE INJECT TRANSPARENCY – AS TO WHEN EXACTLY IS THE ‘MINIMUM’ APPROPRIATE TIME & WHEN EXACTLY DOES THE PARDONS BOARD MEET – SURELY AT FIXED, REGULAR TIMES, LIKE ONE OR PERHAPS TWICE A YEAR & NOT AT WHIM & FANCY OF CORRUPT & PETULANT POLITICIANS, RIGHT? – AT THE MOMENT, NOBODY KNOWS! SURELY THIS IS NOT THE WAY OF ‘MADANI’ GOVT?

Prime Minister’s Department Legal Affairs Division director-general Khairul Dzaimee Daud said this in confirming that the matter was not discussed at the board’s last meeting on April 28.

“The Pardons Board secretariat would like to say that Najib’s application was unable to be brought for discussion at its (last) meeting.

“On the other hand, the application will be considered at the appropriate time, according to the law and regulations in place,” said Khairul Dzaimee, who is also the secretary for the Federal Territories Pardons Board.

On March 31, the five-judge panel of the Federal Court, in a 4-1 majority decision, rejected Najib’s application to review his conviction for the RM42 million in the SRC International corruption case.

Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Abdul Rahman Sebli chaired the panel, which also included Federal Court judges Rhodzariah Bujang, Nordin Hassan and Vernon Ong Lam Kiat as well as Court of Appeal judge Abu Bakar Jais.

This verdict is in line with a previous decision on Aug 23 last year by a different Federal Court bench chaired by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat to uphold Najib’s guilty verdict as well as a 12-year sentence and RM210 million fine.

At the same time, Khairul Dzaimee said the 59th meeting of the board, held at the Istana Negara, had considered 10 pardon applications under Regulation 54 and Regulation 113 of the Prisons Act 2000.

He said this was in line with the powers of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong under Article 42 of the Federal Constitution to grant pardon, postpone sentencing and decrease sentences for offences committed in the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan, aside from similar powers held by state sultans.

MKINI

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