Umno seeks audience with Agong to request pardon for Najib 

KUALA LUMPUR – Umno’s Supreme Council will be submitting an appeal to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong urging for a full pardon to be granted to imprisoned former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak. 

Umno secretary-general Datuk Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said that the decision was reached during the party’s Supreme Council meeting earlier today. 

This follows the apex court’s recent decision to reject Najib’s review application to overturn the Federal Court ruling last year, which upheld the former Umno president’s guilty verdict and 12-year jail sentence in his SRC International Sdn Bhd case. 

“The Supreme Council considered the lamentations of Umno grassroots members on the court’s unfair verdict, as outlined by Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Datuk Abdul Rahman Sebli, who made the sole dissenting decision. 

“We have agreed to seek an audience with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to hand over a pardon appeal for (Najib), along with a memorandum signed by party leaders from 191 divisions, including party wings,” Asyraf said in a statement after the meeting’s conclusion. 

He also announced that the 2023 Umno general assembly is scheduled to take place from June 7 to 10 this year. 

On Monday, Najib’s lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said that Rahman’s singular dissenting judgment will be used to bolster his pardon application to the king, noting then that the necessary documents will be filed within the week. 

In his dissenting judgment, Rahman argued that Najib was not given a fair trial during the main Federal Court appeal after he was not allowed to seek adjournment. 

This is despite the fact that the former prime minister had changed his solicitors and counsel. 

Rahman also said that Najib’s request to rope in the Queen’s Counsel to represent him was also rejected and that he was left to fend for himself after the apex court refused to grant his new counsel more time to make preparations. 

Federal Court judge Datuk Vernon Ong Lam Kiat said the majority decision to reject Najib’s review application was made after considering all submissions, as well as all evidence and arguments presented by the prosecution and defence. – The Vibes, April 7, 2023